My Girl
by ponygurl51090
Summary: sequel to butterfly kisses. Davanee is now 2 years old. Sorry for the bad summary. it's better than it sounds. Last chapter is up.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Ages:

Ponyboy & Anya: 16

Davanee: 2

Darry: 22

Soda & Johnny: 18

Steve & Dallas: 19

Two-bit: 20

Hailey: 4

Kara: 7

Dillon: 2

Maddie: 14

"Daddy, come find me" said Davanee from her hiding place, which was under the kitchen sink. She chooses the same hiding place every time.

"Where oh where could Davanee be?" I asked. Before Davanee had time to answer the question, Anya and Soda came home. Anya just got a job at the DX a couple of months ago.

"Anybody home?" asked Soda.

"In here!" I called from the kitchen.

"How was y'alls day at work?" I asked.

"Good" said Anya.

"Fine. We got a lot of customers today" said Soda, flipping through the mail.

"Daddy, come find me" said Davanee.

"Ok, I'm coming" I said. As I went to go open the cabinets, I knocked over a Pepsi that I had left sitting on the counter.

"Soda, can you get me some paper towels from under the sink?" I asked while I threw the bottle away.

"Sure" said Soda. Soda got the paper towels out from under the sink, acting like he didn't see Davanee.

"Here ya go" said Soda, handing the towels. I mopped up the mess and threw away the wet towels. I then proceeded to open the cabinets.

"There you are. I've been looking everywhere for you" I said, letting Davanee out form under the sink.

"You know what?" asked Davanee.

"What?"

"Uncle Soda opened the cabinets and he not see me" said Davanee.

"Wow, you're getting really good at this game" I said, picking her up.

"I got a surprise for you" I said.

"What is it?" asked Davanee.

"You're gonna be staying with Uncle Soda tonight while daddy goes to school" I said.

"Really?" asked Davanee.

"Really" I said.

"Yay!" shouted Davanee. She loved it when Soda babysat her. She loved being with Soda, but she said she loved being with me more.

"Yeah, Dillon and Hailey are coming over too" said Soda.

"Why?" I asked.

"Maddie has school and Hailey's grandparents have some important dinner thing to go to" said Soda, "I volunteered to baby-sit."

"Two 2 year olds and a 4 year old. You're gonna have your hands full tonight" I said.

"Well Dallas and Two-bit said they might stop by" said Soda.

"Is Dallas bringing Bo?" I asked.

"I dunno. Probably. He can't really leave her home alone" said Soda. Bo was Dallas' daughter. Sandy had left her with him right before she left for Florida.

"So that would be a 4 year old, two 2 year olds, and a baby that's almost a year old" I said.

"Possibly a 7 year old too if Two-Bit brings Kara" said Soda.

"You know I think we would make a lot of money if we turned our house into a day care" said Anya. She had been there so long; she started calling it our house.

"That's not a bad idea" I said.

"What's not a bad idea?" asked Two-Bit, coming into the kitchen.

"Uncle Two-Bit!" shouted Davanee. I set her down and she gave Two-Bit a big hug.

"Hey munchkin" said Two-Bit.

"I not a munchkin" said Davanee, her hands on her hips. Munchkin was Two-Bit's nickname for her.

"Are you bringing Kara with you tonight?" asked Soda.

"Yeah if my mom has to work" said Two-Bit, "plus her new boyfriend is probably coming over tonight an as far as I know, Kara isn't too fond of him."

"I didn't know your mom had a boyfriend" said Anya.

"Yeah. His name is Sam. He works at the bar. He's kinda new" said Two-Bit.

"Do you like him?" I asked.

"He's ok I guess" said Two-Bit, "not really my favorite person but he's ok. He's nice to us."

"Well if he's nice to ya then how come Kara doesn't like him?" asked Anya.

"I dunno" replied Two-Bit.

"Daddy, I wanna watch Cinderella" said Davanee, pulling at my arm.

"Ok" I said. I followed Davanee to the living room. She planted her down on the couch while I rewound.

"Oh boy we get to listen to those singing mice again" said Soda.

"Well, if you're babysitting tonight you're probably going to be hearing them again" I said.

"Daddy?" asked Davanee.

"Yes?"

"You come watch with me?" asked Davanee.

"I can't right now but I'm sure Uncle Soda and Uncle Two-Bit would love to watch Cinderella with you" I said. Soda just rolled his eyes at me and sat down on the couch right next to Davanee. Two-Bit also did the same except he didn't roll his eyes. His sisters went through a phase of watching Cinderella everyday when she was younger so he was use to it.

I went back to working on my homework. I had about 2 hours until school. Once I was done with all my homework, Davanee absolutely insisted that I play with her. She was done watching Cinderella when I was done with my homework

Unlike other girls, she liked to play with army men. These were the same army men I played with when I was little.

We had been playing for about half an hour when I head to leave.

"Bye Daddy" said Davanee, giving me a kiss goodbye.

"Bye, sweetie. You be a good girl for Uncle Soda, ok?"

"Ok" she said.

I said goodbye to everyone else and left. I decided to walk to school that night. It was a nice night out. Sure, it was a little hot but it was nice.

We didn't really do much at school that night.

I walked home with Maddie that night.

"So how has your week been so far?" I asked.

"Pretty good. Oh, did I tell you I have boyfriend now" said Maddie.

"What's his name?" I asked.

"Joey. I met him a couple of months ago" said Maddie.

"Where'd you meet him?"

"At the drive in. Dad said that I could go out and he would baby-sit Dillon for a little while. I was there with one of my friends and he was sitting all by himself so we decided to be nice and sit with him."

"How old is he?" I asked.

"16, two years older than me" said Maddie.

"Uh-huh. And how does your dad like you dating a guy that's 2 years older than you?"

"He doesn't know. He thinks Joey is 14. Your not going to tell him are you?" asked Maddie.

"No, I won't tell. Does Joey know about Dillon?"

"Of course he does. He seems to like Dillon. I wouldn't date him if he didn't" said Maddie.

"That's good" I said.

When we got to my house, there were four little kids asleep on the floor, two of them being Dillon and Davanee.

Maddie picked Dillon up and whispered "tell Soda I said thanks."

"I will. See ya later" I said.

"Bye" said Maddie, walking out the door. I found Soda sitting at the kitchen table.

"How'd it go?" I asked.

"Not that bad. They were a little wild but after awhile they settled down" said Soda.

"Davanee wasn't wild, was she?" I asked, taking my shoes off.

"Not really" said Soda, "I did have to put her in timeout for a little while."

"How'd that go?" I asked. Time out was a relatively new thing for Davanee. She hadn't grasped the concept that once you're in timeout, you have to stay there until it's time to come out.

"She fought me a little bit but that was it really."

"What'd she do?"

"She was pinching Dillon" said Soda. Not pinching was also a relatively new concept for her.

"So besides her going to timeout what else happened?" I asked.

"Nothing really. Once they all settled down, they watched Mickey Mouse. They've been asleep for about an hour" said Soda.

"I'm gonna put her to bed" I said, walking into the living room and picking Davanee up. I laid her down in her new bed. We had just put it together a couple of weeks ago. Davanee didn't like the idea of not sleeping in her crib at first but she got use to it after awhile.

"Daddy" whispered Davanee, still half asleep.

"Yeah?"

"Will you sing to me?" asked Davanee.

I sighed and said "ok." I laid down next to her on her bed and asked "what song do you want to hear tonight?"

"Teddy Bear" she said.

"Of course, I should've known" I said. She went right to sleep when I was done with the song. Once she had fallen back asleep I went out to the kitchen and waited with Soda for Two-Bit and Hailey's grandparents. Hailey's grandparents were a little late picking her up. Two-Bit never came so Kara ended up spending the night in Davanee's room.

I awoke the next morning to somebody jumping on my bed. I opened my eyes to see Davanee, giggling while jumping.

"Morning Daddy" said Davanee.

"Morning, baby" I said.

"Uncle Darry's makin' breakfast" said Davanee.

I got out of bed and carried Davanee to the kitchen. Davanee sat down at the table and finished eating her breakfast. Davanee wasn't a picky eater.

"So what's on the agenda today?" asked Darry as he placed a plate of eggs in front of me.

"I dunno. I was thinking maybe we would go to the park today. Maybe stop by the DX a little later" I said.

"Yay! We're going to the park!" shouted Davanee.

"Shhhh, Davanee, Uncle Soda and Kara are still asleep" I said.

"Sorry" said Davanee.

"Besides, you can't go to the park in your pj's can you?" I asked. Davanee shook her head no.

We finished up breakfast and I put both mine and Davanee's plates in the sink. I helped Davanee get dressed. By that time Kara was already up.

"What do you want to wear today?" I asked.

Davanee thought about it for a moment before finally pointing to a purple shirt and a pair of jeans.

"What shoes do you want to wear?" I asked.

"These" said Davanee, holding up a pair of black converse that Two-Bit got her.

"Come on let's go brush your hair" I said.

"No" said Davanee.

"Yeah, come on" I said.

"No" said Davanee.

"Why don't you want to brush your hair?" I asked.

"It hurts" said Davanee.

"Oh, come on it won't hurt this time. I promise" I said.

"Ok" said Davanee. I tried not to let it hurt but it did. With that many knots it was impossible for it not to hurt.


	2. The Drive In

Chapter 2

We spent about an hour or so at the park. Like any kid, Davanee loved to go to the park when it was sunny outside. She told me that her favorite thing to do at the park was slide down the slide or play on the tire swing.

That was obvious because she asked me a hundred times to watch her slide or push her on the swing.

"Daddy" said Davanee, "I hungry."

"Ok. Let's go see Uncle Soda and Uncle Steve at work. We can have lunch with them" I said.

"Yay!" shouted Davanee. She loved seeing Soda and Steve at work. To be honest, I think Soda liked it just as much as she did. So we walked over to the DX. Actually, I walked. Davanee was carried half of the way. I decided to put her down and let her walk a little when we were about half way there.

On the way, we ran into Tim and Curly Shepard. When Davanee saw them, she hid behind me. She didn't like Tim and Curly. I find it kind of funny that she's afraid of Tim and Curly but she loves Dallas.

"Hey, Curtis" said Curly.

"Hey Curly, hey Tim" I said.

"What's up?" asked Curly.

"Nothin' much really. What's up with you guys?" I asked.

"Same old thing. Who's that?" asked Tim. Davanee poked her head out from behind me but ducked back when she saw Tim and Curly looking at her.

"This is Davanee. Davanee, you wanna come on out and say hi to daddy's friends?" I asked. She didn't move.

"She's being shy" I said.

"That can't be the same baby I saw in the grocery store that one time" said Curly.

"Yep that's her" I said.

"She's gotten big. Well, we better get goin'. Stuff to do" said Curly.

"Yeah we gotta go too. See ya later" I said, picking Davanee up. She buried her face in my shoulder.

"Bye" said Tim, walking past us with Curly following behind.

"What was that about?" I asked once they left.

"They scare me" said Davanee.

I laughed and said "come on, let's go see Uncle Soda."  
"And Uncle Steve?" asked Davanee.

"And Uncle Steve" I said. We walked for a little while longer until we got to the gas station. It wasn't that busy, but then again it was a Wednesday.

"Uncle Soda!" shouted Davanee as I let her down.

"Shorty" said Soda, picking her up. Soda was the only one that could call Davanee shorty.

"What are you guys doin' here?" asked Soda.

"We thought we'd stop by for a little while" I said.

"Where Uncle Steve?" asked Davanee.

"He's in the garage working on a car. You wanna go see him?" asked Soda.

"Yeah" said Davanee. I walked to the garage with Soda and Davanee. Soda put Davanee down. She ran up to Steve and gave him a hug.

"Hey" said Steve.

"What'cha doin'?" asked Davanee.

"Working on a car. You wanna help?" asked Steve. Steve always let her help.

"Yeah" said Davanee. I left Davanee out in the garage with Steve. Though Steve and I may not always get along, I trusted him when it came to watching Davanee.

"So what have you guys been up to today?" asked Soda.

"Nothing really. We've been at the park all morning" I said.

"What are you doing later?" asked Soda.

"I don't know" I said.

"Y'all wanna go to lunch with us? Our break is in an hour" said Soda.

"Yeah, sure" I said.

"Do you have school tonight?" asked Soda

"Yeah. Why?" I asked.

"Well, they're playing _Cinderella _down at the Nightly Double and I was wondering if I could take her" said Soda.

"I thought you didn't like Cinderella" I said.

"I don't but I figured she'd like it" said Soda

I thought about it for a moment. It was a school night so it's not like there would be a ton of people there and she would like to see Cinderella on the big screen.

"I guess its ok. You just gotta keep a close eye on her" I said.

"I know, I know. It's not like I've never babysat her before" said Soda.

"So what time is the movie?" I asked.

"7:00" said Soda. Just then, Steve and Davanee came in. Davanee was covered head to toe in oil.

"Hey Davanee guess what" said Soda.

"What?" asked Davanee.

"We're gonna go see Cinderella tonight at the drive in" said Soda.

"Really?" asked Davanee.

"Yeah" said Soda.

"Daddy coming?" asked Davanee.

"No, baby, Daddy's got school tonight" I said, picking Davanee up.

"Uncle Steve?" asked Davanee.

"Sorry, kiddo, I gotta work tonight" said Steve.

"Just me and Uncle Soda?" asked Davanee.

"Yep. It's just you and Uncle Soda tonight" I said.  
"Yay!" shouted Davanee for the third time that day.

"But right now we gotta go home" I said.

"Why?" asked Davanee.

"Because you're all dirty. You can't go out like that" I said.

Davanee looked down at the floor and said "ok."

"Maybe some other time" said Soda.

"Bye Uncle Soda! Bye Uncle Steve" said Davanee as we left.

Davanee walked most of the way home. Once we got home, she went straight in the bath. I let her take a bubble bath. Normally if it was a bubble bath, she wouldn't fight me about it. She liked the bubbles except for when they got in her eyes.

I made her take a nap before she went out that night. Instead of singing her to sleep like I normally did, she fell asleep to her Snow White record. She loved the song _Someday my Prince Will Come_. Snow White was Davanee's second favorite Disney princess.

Soda came home about 2 hours later. Davanee was sitting on the floor of my room coloring while I was doing my homework.

"Anybody home?" asked Soda. Once Davanee heard his voice, she jumped up and ran to greet him. She did that to everyone. She gave him a big hug and a kiss, like she always does.

"Can we go now?" asked Davanee.

"Nope, we gotta wait till it gets dark out" said Soda.

"Ok" said Davanee.

"I promise you, the minute it starts getting dark, we'll leave, ok?"

"Ok."

"How was the rest of your day?" I asked.

"Pretty good. We didn't get a whole lot of customers today. It was just one of those days" said Soda.

"Would you mind watching her while I get ready for school?" I asked.

"Sure. Where is she?" asked Soda.

"She went in her room" I said

SODA'S POV

I went to Davanee's room while Pony went to get ready for school. I found Davanee on the floor playing with her army men.

"Hey, shorty" I said, getting on the floor with her.

"Wanna play?" asked Davanee.

"Yeah sure" I said.

"Here. You be dis one" said Davanee, handing me a plastic soldier. This one looked like it was suppose to be lying down or something. So we played army for a couple of minutes. This was one of Davanee's favorite games. I could never understand why she liked to play with army men instead of dolls. I guess it had to do with the fact that she lived in a house full of guys.

About an hour or so later, Pony had to leave.

"Bye Daddy" said Davanee.

"Bye sweetie" said Pony, giving her a kiss, "you be a good girl for your Uncle Soda, ok?"

"Ok" said Davanee.

Pony said goodbye and left. Once he was gone, I made dinner for Davanee and I. Darry was working late that night. During dinner, Davanee couldn't sit still. She was that excited. After dinner I helped Davanee get ready.

Once we were ready to go, we hopped in the car and drove to the drive in. Davanee seemed to be amazed by the fact that you sat in your car and watched the movie. During the movie, Davanee sang along to every song and I tried not to fall asleep. It's not that I was tired it's just that the movie was boring. I guess if I was a 2 year old girl it wouldn't be so boring.

The movie ended around 9. Davanee fell asleep on the way home. We came home only to find that nobody was home. Normally everyone was home by that time.

I laid Davanee down in her bed and left the door cracked open. I sat in Darry's chair and waited for Pony and Darry to come home.

PONY'S POV

I walked in to see Soda sitting in Darry's chair "Hey" I said.

"Hey" said Soda.

"Where's Davanee?" I asked.

"She's asleep. She fell asleep on the way home from the drive-in" said Soda.

"Oh, well, I'm gonna go to bed. I'm tired" I said, making my way to my bedroom. When I passed by Davanee's room, I could hear the sound of her Marry Poppin's record playing Feed the Birds. Soda must have turned it on for her. She liked to have music playing while she was asleep. I pushed the door open a little to check on her. She looked like an angel when she was asleep, but then again she always looked like an angel.


	3. Flu

Chapter 3

The day had started out as a normal day. Davanee had woken me up by jumping on the bed.

"Daddy, get up" she said.

"I will if you stop jumping" I said. She stopped jumping and sat down on the bed.

"Morning Daddy" she said, smiling from ear to ear.

"Morning, sweetheart" I said, giving her a kiss.

"Where's Uncle Soda?" I asked, noticing that Soda was already up.

"He left" said Davanee.

"Probably had to work early" I said, putting my feet on the floor.

"Come on" I said, "I'll give you a piggyback ride out to the kitchen."

Davanee put her arms around my neck and hopped on my back. I carried her out to the living room and sat her down on the couch so she could watch Mickey Mouse with Two-Bit.

"Daddy watch" said Davanee. I sat down on the couch next to her. We hardly ever watched TV together. I was normally busy with school work. Once I sat down, she climbed up on my lap like she did when she was a baby. We watched Mickey until breakfast was ready. After breakfast, I helped Davanee get dressed.

"Daddy?" asked Davanee.

"Yeah?"

"We gonna see Uncle Soda today?"

"No not today, sweetie. We have a couple of errands to run today" I said, pulling a shirt over her head.

"Where we going?"

"We are going to the grocery store and then, if you're good, we might go with Uncle Two-Bit and Uncle Johnny to Dairy Queen" I said.

"I'll be good" said Davanee.

"I know you will" I said.

After we were done getting dressed, I brushed Davanee's hair. I must admit, my first attempt at a ponytail wasn't that bad. Their were a few bumps but that was it. When I was done getting ready, we left. Davanee insisted on walking to the grocery store so we didn't bring the stroller. Davanee said hi to everybody we passed on the sidewalk. They had to stop and tell me how adorable she was. I was use to hearing that by now.

Once we got to the grocery store, I asked Davanee if she wanted to walk or ride in the cart. She said she wanted to ride in the cart.

We were getting chocolate milk when we saw Mark. After two years, he still worked at the same store. I was kind of hoping he wouldn't see us. It's not that I didn't like Mark. It's just that I really wasn't in the mood to talk to him. I quickly grabbed the milk and started walking away, but it was no use. He saw us.

"Curtis!" he shouted as he approached us.

"Mark" I said.

"What have you been up to? It's been awhile" said Mark.

"Nothing much. You?"

"Same old stuff. It's kinda sad that nothing has changed since we've last seen each other. Who's this?" asked Mark, pointing to Davanee.

"My daughter, Davanee" I said.

"Wait a minute. This isn't the same baby I saw the last time we saw each other, is it?" asked Mark.

"Yeah, it is" I said.

"Whoa. How old are you, Davanee?" asked Mark.

"Dis many" said Davanee, holding up two fingers.

Mark smiled and said "she's cute. Listen, I gotta get back to work. It's was good seeing you again."

"Good seeing you too" I said. Mark left and went back to his job.

"Who dat?" asked Davanee.

"That's Mark. He's one of my friends. You've met him a couple of times before" I said.

"No" said Davanee, shaking her head.

"Yeah, you just don't remember. You were just a baby" I said.

"I not a baby" said Davanee.

"Not any more but you use to be" I said.  
"I was?" asked Davanee.

"Yeah" I said.

"That cwazy" said Davanee.

I laughed and said "come on. Let's get these groceries home and then we'll go see Uncle Two-Bit and Uncle Johnny." We checked out and went home but instead of going back out, Davanee fell asleep while she was waiting for me to put the groceries away. While I was putting Davanee in her bed, Anya came home.

"What are you doing home?" I asked as I cracked Davanee's door.

"I got off early today. I'm not feeling too good" said Anya.

"Awww, I'm sorry" I said, giving her a kiss.

"It's ok. It's not your fault. I think I'm gonna go lay down for a little while" said Anya, walking to her room. Anya had gotten my Soda's old room, the room he used before he started sleeping in my room.

I went to my room to finish my homework. About an hour or so later, I heard little footsteps coming down the hall. I turned around to see Davanee standing in my doorway, holding her blanket that Two-B it gave her when she was a baby.

"Hey, sweetie" I said, picking her up.

"Daddy, I'm hungry" said Davanee, placing her head on my shoulder.

"I bet you are" I said, "you haven't had anything to eat all day. What do you want?"

"Peanut butter and jewy" said Davanee.

"Ok. Peanut butter and jelly it is" I said. I carried her out to the kitchen. She sat at the table and waited while I made her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Once she was done with her peanut butter and jelly, Davanee asked if we could go play outside. I only had an hour before I had to go to school but I figured why not.

Davanee went straight to the garage and got the bucket of sidewalk chalk. We kept it on a shelf that was low enough for her to reach.

She had me lay down on the sidewalk so she could trace me. Once she was done tracing me, I traced her. She stood over me and watched as I drew her clothes and stuff. Then she did the same to the figure that was suppose to resemble me.

"Daddy look" she said once she was done.

"That's good" I said.

"It's you" said Davanee.

"Oh yeah. Nice purple hair. Pink eyes. It totally looks like me" I said. Davanee giggled. Davanee and I went back inside. I had to leave in a little while and she couldn't be outside by herself.

Soda came home just as I was about to leave. Soda watched her while Anya slept. I came home late that night. Davanee was already asleep. Soda said she tried to stay up but she wasn't feeling good.

"She wasn't running a fever was she?" I asked.

"She did feel a little warm" said Soda.

"I hope she's not getting sick. The last thing we need is for her to be sick" I said.

"Yeah. Well, I'm gonna go to bed. You comin'?" asked Soda.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute. I'm gonna check on Davanee first" I said.

Soda said ok and walked back to our room. I pushed the Davanee's door open very quietly and walked in. She did look a little pale. I walked out and went to bed.

I was sleeping pretty well until about 2 am when Davanee came in and woke me up.

"Davanee, what's wrong sweetie?" I asked.

"I don't feel good" she said, crying.

"Ok, baby. Let's go back to bed." I got out of bed and carried her back to her room. I got the trash can from the kitchen and placed in by her bed just in case. I had intended on going back to my room when she fell asleep but I ended up falling asleep next to Davanee in her bed. I woke up to find that Davanee was still asleep, which was odd because she was normally up before me. I walked out of her room quietly and shut the door.

Darry was in the kitchen making breakfast.

"Morning" said Darry.

"Morning" I said.

"Didn't sleep good?" asked Darry

"No. I fell asleep in Davanee's room" I said.

"Why?"

"She's sick. I'm taking her to the doctors today" I said.

"You know Anya is sick too. She woke up running a fever this morning. I said she didn't have to go to work" said Darry.

"I think I might stay home from school if Davanee isn't feeling better" I said.

"You haven't missed that much school" said Darry, "I guess it would be ok if you stay home while she's sick. Besides, the rest of us don't really know how to take care of a sick 2 year old."

"That would be kind of funny to see you guys trying to take care of a sick kid. It's not as easy as it looks" I said.

"Nothing ever is" said Darry.

"Someone better tell Dallas not to bring Bo if he comes over tonight. That wouldn't be good if she got sick" I said.

"It's ok. I don't think he'll be coming over here anyways" said Darry, giving me a plate of eggs and chocolate cake.

"Why's that?" I asked, getting up to get the chocolate milk.

"He got arrested the other day. Bo's gonna be staying with Ms. Mathews until he's out" said Darry.

"Again? That's the 5th time in the past 2 months" I said, sitting back down.

"I know" said Darry, "but it is Dally we're talking about. What do you expect?"

"You would've thought that having a kid would make him settle down some" I said.

"Maybe you should go down there and give him a talkin' to" suggested Darry.

"And what makes you think Dallas would listen to me?" I asked.

"Well, he might. Stranger things have happened" said Darry.

"That's true. Are you home today?" I asked.

"I have the day off. Why?" asked Darry.

"Well, if I do decide to go talk to Dallas I want to make sure someone is here to watch Davanee. She's sick and I don't think she should be out. Besides, I wouldn't take her to a jail anyways" I said.

"I'll be here all day. I can take her to the doctors if you want" said Darry.

"No. I'll be home by then. Her appointment probably won't be until later" I said.

"Ok" said Darry, "can you do me a favor and go wake soda up? He's gonna be late for work if he doesn't get up soon."

I got up to get dressed and wake Soda up but when I got to our room, Soda was already up and in the shower. I pulled on clean clothes and told Darry I would be back in about an hour. I checked on Davanee before I left. She was still asleep. I decided that it was probably a good idea to let her sleep. Nothing is worse than a crappy 2 year old.

It was a nice day outside so I decided to walk to the jail. Sure, it was a long walk but a little exercise never hurt anybody.

When I got there, the guy at the front desk gave me a weird look.

"I'm here to see Dallas Winston" I said.

"Take a seat. Someone will be with you in a moment" said the guy, not looking up from the papers on the desk.

So I sat down in the one of the chairs in the room. The room was sort of empty aside from a few other people. Well, a moment turned into 20 minutes, and 20 minutes turned into 50. Finally, a lady came out and stood in front of me.

"Are you here to see Dallas Winston?" asked the lady, her hands on her hips. She was an older woman. Her hair was grey in some places and auburn in others. I could tell that she had been working at the jail for years.

"Yes ma'am" I said, standing up.

"Follow me please" she said. Without saying a word, I followed her down a long narrow hallway. There were only a couple of cells in the hallway, but they were all empty except one.

I found Dallas sitting in the corner of the cell with his head in his hands. The lady opened the cell and let me in.

Dallas didn't even bother to look up at me.

"What'd you do this time?" I asked.

"Nothing" said Dallas.

"So nothing got you thrown in jail? That makes sense" I said.

Dallas took a deep breathe and looked up, but he still didn't look at me.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I" began Dallas, "I robbed a grocery store."

"You what?!" I asked, somewhat shocked. I never thought I would hear Dallas say that he robbed a grocery store, but then again it was Dallas.

"We needed the money" said Dal.

"You know you could've just come to us. Besides, I thought you got a job" I said.

"I did. I got fired a couple months ago on the count of having to go home a lot. Bo's been really sick lately and there's no one there to take care of her" said Dallas.

"You know we'd be more than happy to watch her during the day" I said. Heck, we watched just about everybody's kids during the day.

"I know but I figured you would have your hands full with Davanee" said Dal.

"Look, Dal, you can't do this any more. You can't be in and out of jail anymore. How much is bail this time?" I asked.

"350" said Dallas.

"Alright. I'll go call Darry and see if there's anything he can do" I said, walking towards the cell door. The lady that had led me back there was leaning against the wall, listening to our conversation. She let me out of the cell and led me back to the lobby. I called Darry from there. He said that Johnny would stay with Davanee until we got back. I waited for about an hour until I saw Darry walk through the doors.

"How much is it this time?" asked Darry, letting out a long sigh.

"350" I said.

Darry sighed but paid the bail anyways.

"What'd he do?" asked Darry as we waited for Dallas.

"He robbed a grocery store. He said he needed the money. Bo's been really sick lately" I said.

"I thought he had a job?" asked Darry.

"He did. He got fired because he had to stay home so much" I said.

Before anything else could be said, I saw Dally coming down the hall.

"Come on" said Darry, "let's go get Bo first and then we'll go home."

We stopped at Two-Bit's house on the way home. As usual, Two-Bit wasn't home. I put Bo's car seat in the car while Dally' got the baby. That baby had brought out a different, softer side of Dallas over the past year. He wasn't as tough as he use to be and he didn't go to jail so much. I knew he loved her, but it was practically in his nature to go to jail. It's like something he couldn't help.

Once the baby was in the car, we drove home to get Davanee for her doctor's appointment. Darry had called and scheduled an appointment early that day. I walked into Davanee's room to find her lying in her bed, coloring.

"Hey baby" I said.

"Hi Daddy" said Davanee.

"You still feel bad?" I asked. She nodded her head yes.

"We gotta get you dressed, sweetie" I said.

"Why?" asked Davanee.

"Because we're going to go see Dr. Irene" I said.

"Shots?" asked Davanee.

"No, no shots this time" I said. After I said that, Davanee agreed to get dressed. I let her bring her blanket with her. She always took either her blanket or teddy bear to doctor's appointments. I was going to ask Darry if I could drive to the doctor's office but when I started driving, he came up with this rule that Davanee isn't allowed to be in the car with me while I'm driving. So he had to drive.

When we got to the office, Darry filled out the paper work while Davanee and I sat down in the waiting room. Davanee sat on my lap with her head against my shoulder and her blanket wrapped around her the whole time we waited.

"Davanee" called the nurse.

We got up and followed the nurse back to an exam room. We got the room that had butterflies all over it. We always got that room.

I put Davanee on the exam table and waited for Dr. Irene. It seemed like it took forever for her to get there. She must have had a lot of other patients that day.

Finally, we heard a loud knock on the door. Dr. Irene always knocked on the door before she came in.

The appointment took about an hour. It turns out that Davanee had the flu. Dr. Irene gave me a prescription for antibiotics and told me that Davanee had to take it every four hours, and it was probably a good idea to mix it in with juice or something.

We left the doctor's office and dropped the prescription off at the pharmacy. They said it would take about an hour to fill so we went home. I didn't want to have to keep Davanee out longer than she needed to be. Soda picked up the prescription on his way home from work. I didn't go to school that night.

I ended up staying home from school that whole week. Not only was Davanee sick but I wasn't getting any sleep because of it. She was up at all hours of the night crying.

Come Saturday afternoon, she was feeling well enough to sit out on the couch and watch Mickey, but she was still running a fever.


	4. Marry me

Chapter 4

By the next week, Davanee was all better and back to her normal self. That night was a Saturday night. Darry agreed to watch Davanee while Anya and I went out. We hadn't been out just the 2 of us in a long time.

"Daddy, where ya goin'?" asked Davanee as I fixed my hair.

"I'm going on a date" I said.

"With who?"

"Anya. You are going to stay here with Uncle Soda and Uncle Darry. Won't that be fun?" I asked.

"Yeah. It always fun" said Davanee, looking down at her face. She looked a little sad.

"Honey, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing" said Davanee. She walked down the hall to her room with her head hung low. It broke my heart to see my little girl upset like that. I went into her room to find out what was wrong. She was on the floor playing with her army men.

"Davanee, what's wrong?" I asked, getting down on the floor.

"You not pway with me no more" said Davanee.

"Tell you what, how about I play with you right now? I've got a little while before I have to leave" I said.

Davanee smiled and said "ok" but instead of playing with the army men, she wanted to color. She got that from me. I always loved to color when I was little. I must have gone through thousands of coloring books.

"Daddy, look" said Davanee, holding up a drawing.

"Wow" I said, "who are all those people?" The paper was covered with what was suppose to be people.

"Dats Uncle Darry and Uncle Soda" said Davanee, pointing to two figures. The one that was suppose to be Darry had a black shirt and jeans. The only that looked like Soda had a red shirt and a blue dx hat.

"What about this one? Who's that?" I asked, pointing to another person.

"Uncle Johnny" said Davanee. Davanee gave him a jeans jacket and a black shirt with black hair and eyes.

"And these two?"

"Uncle Two-Bit and Uncle Dallas. See, Mickey Mouse" said Davanee. I had noticed that she had given Two-Bit a Mickey Mouse shirt.

"And these two?"

"Uncle Steve and you" said Davanee.

"And who's this girl in the front?"

"Anya."

"What about the little girl? Who's that?" I asked, knowing very well who that was.

"Me!"

"Come on" I said, "let's got put this on the refrigerator." Once we did put it up, Davanee stood back and said "it pretty."

"It is pretty" I said.

"We color more?" asked Davanee.

"You and Uncle Darry can color more" I said, picking her up, "but it's time for me to go."

"Uncle Soda color too?" asked Davanee.

"Yeah, Uncle Soda will probably color too" I said, "now I've gotta go. I'll be in big trouble if I'm late."

"You go time-out?" asked Davanee.

"No, my punishment will be worse" I said, "now you be a good girl for Uncle Darry and Uncle Soda and tomorrow we'll spend the day together, just the two of us."

"Yay!"

"But you have to be a good girl tonight. I don't want to come home and have to hear that you were in timeout because you were being naughty" I said.

"I be vewy good girl" said Davanee.

"That's my girl" I said, giving her a big kiss goodbye. I set her down and said goodbye to Darry and Soda. Then I left. Darry let me take the truck out that night. Anya was meeting me at the movies. She was walking there from work.

ANYA'S POV

I waited anxiously outside the movie theatre. This was the first date Ponyboy and I had had in a long time. I decided to sit on the bench and wait. The crowd that was out in the theatre started thinning out a little as the shows started. He was running 20 minutes late. It really wasn't like him to be late to anything. I'm sure he would have a perfectly good explanation as to why he was late. Finally, I saw the truck pull into the parking lot and park right in front of the theatre. Once he stepped out of the car, I got a sick feeling in my stomach. Well, it wasn't really a sick feeling. It felt more like my heart had dropped into the pit of my stomach. Even though we've been dating for about 2 years now, every time I see him is like I'm seeing him for the first time.

"I'm so sorry, I got tied up at the house" said Pony.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I was getting ready to go and when I told Davanee I was going out, she got all upset and said that I never played with her anymore. So I ended up coloring with her for an hour. I'm sorry. You forgive me?" he asked.

"Of course I do. I always forgive you" I said, planting a kiss on his lips.

"Come on" he said, smiling from ear to ear, "we're gonna miss the movie."

Pony, being the gentlemen that he his, bought my ticket and his ticket.

"So what are we seeing?" I asked.

"That new Paul Newman movie" he said.

"Finally, a movie that doesn't involve singing rodents or a singing nanny" I said.

"I don't think I can watch Cinderella again" said Pony as we took our seats in the theatre. The show hadn't started yet. To my surprise, the theatre wasn't all that crowded. There were a couple of people but not a whole lot.

In a couple of minutes the movie started. I didn't like it at first but it grew on me as it progressed. About halfway through the movie, Pony put his arm around me. I think I could literally feel my heart melt.

Once the movie was over, Ponyboy surprised me by taking me out to dinner. If we ever go on a date, we either go to a movie or go to dinner. We never do both. We went to some little soda shop that was right next to the movies. It was relatively new and, to make it better, it was in greaser territory. The food there wasn't all the great, but then again what do you expect from a soda shop? But the peanut butter chocolate milkshakes were to die for! After dinner, we walked back to the theatre and drove home from there. It was around 11:30 when we got back. I went right to bed but Ponyboy stayed up and talked to Darry.

PONY'S POV

I gave Anya a good night kiss and sat down on the couch. Darry was sitting in his chair.

"What happened here?" I asked.

"Nothing really. I tell ya, your daughter has everyone wrapped around her finger" said Darry.

"Tell me about it" I said.

"So how'd your date go?" asked Darry.

"Wonderful" I said.

"What was so wonderful about it?" asked Darry.

"Everything."

There was a silence between us. Darry gave me a funny yet understanding look before he went back to reading the paper. I just stared at the blank TV screen in front of me.

"Darry?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"What would you say if I wanted to marry Anya?" I asked.

"I don't know what I would say. Why, do you want to marry Anya?" he asked, looking at me instead of the paper.

"Yeah, I do but I don't want to have to wait until I'm older. I want to marry her now, well, not right this minute but soon" I said. I know it may sound a little crazy but 16 year olds can be in love, can't they?  
"I don't know, Pony. You know we don't have the money for a wedding. Besides, I don't know if it's even legal for you to get married so young" said Darry.

"We don't have to have a wedding. All we have to do is go down to city hall and it is legal for us to get married, we just have to have your permission. Please, Darry, please" I begged.

"What about a ring? She's gonna want some sort of engagement ring" said Darry.

"I've got the money" I said.

"Where'd you get the money? You don't have a job" said Darry.

"I've been saving my birthday money since I was 5. Please, Darry" I begged again. There was a long silence between us. Finally Darry let out a long sigh and said "you're not gonna stop until I say yes, are you?"

"No, I'm not" I said.

Darry didn't say anything. My best guess was that he was thinking about it.

"When are you planning on asking her?" asked Darry.

"Next week probably" I said.

"Are you going to stay here or are you going to move out?" asked Darry.

"I dunno. I was thinking that maybe we'd stay here and move out when we have enough money for an apartment" I said.

"You know what, I can see you've already thought this through and obviously you're responsible enough. I guess I don't have a problem with it" said Darry.

"Really?" I asked, shocked. I never in a million years expected Darry to let me get married. I thought for sure he would've hit the roof when I asked him.

"Really" said Darry. I gave him a hug and said "thanks Darry."

"I know" he said, "I better not regret this in the future."

"You won't" I said, walking off to my room. I checked on Davanee before I went to bed. I would've told her about me asking Anya to marry me but she couldn't keep a secret.

The next day I went out and bought a ring. It was nice but not that big. As you can probably guess, I didn't have enough money to afford a big ring. The band was silver and in the middle it had a small diamond. Even though it was big, I knew she would love it.

I took the ring home and hid it in the bottom drawer of my desk. She never came in my room so therefore she would have no reason to be looking in my desk drawers.

That night, I was sitting at my desk doing my homework when Soda came in looking for something. First he looked in the dresser and managed to make a mess by throwing all the clothes out. Then he moved on to the desk, looking in every drawer.

"What are you looking for?" I asked.

"A pen" said Soda, looking through the bottom drawer. He stopped when he came across the ring.

"What's this?" he asked holding it up.

"It's a ring" I replied.

"I know that, I meant what's it for?"

I turned around to make sure the door was closed.

"It's an engagement ring" I said, snatching it away from him and putting it back in the drawer.

"Why would you need an engagement ring?" asked Soda but he answered his own question.

"How come you never told me this?"

"I haven't had the time. You've been working a lot lately" I said.

"So when are you going to ask her?" he asked.

"Wednesday night. Are you going to be home that night?" I asked.

"Yeah. I can watch Davanee for you" he said.

That Wednesday came around pretty fast, faster than what I had expected. Anya was still at work when I was getting ready to go out. My plan was to go to dinner and then to the park. I would pop the question under the oak tree where we kissed for the first time.

"Daddy, where you goin'?" asked Davanee.

"I'm going on a date" I said.

"Again?" asked Davanee.

"Yeah but this is a special date. You know why it's special?" I asked.

"Why?" asked Davanee.

"Because I'm going to ask Anya to marry me. That means you might have a new mommy" I said

"I will?" asked Davanee.

"Yeah, and who knows, you might even get a brother or sister" I said.

"Yay! Somebody to play with!" shouted Davanee.

I smiled and laughed. I finished getting ready and said my goodbyes.

"Good luck" said Davanee, giving me a kiss goodbye.

"I might be a little late tonight" I said.

"That's ok" said Darry, "take your time."

Before I left, I double checked to see if the ring was in my pocket. That would be pretty bad if I forgot it. Darry let me borrow the truck that night. I pulled up in front of the DX and walked inside to get Anya. I found her working behind the counter.

"Wow, you look nice" said Anya.

"Thank you" I said.

"I'll be ready in a little while, just give me a couple of minutes" she said as she disappeared to the back of the gas station. I said ok and waited. It didn't take her that long to get ready, only a couple of minutes. When she came out, she was wearing a nice pink dress and her hair was curled slightly. I couldn't believe this was the same girl who normally wore jeans and a ratty t-shirt.

"Wow" I said, "you look wonderful."

"You think so? I borrowed this dress from Maddie" said Anya.

"Come on. We're going to be late" I said, leading her out of the station.

"So where are we going?" she asked.

"You'll see" I said. I opened her car door for her. Most of the car ride was us talking about our day.

We arrived at the restaurant around 7. It was a nice restaurant and it was in Soc territory. Luckily for us, there were no Socs around.

"This is really nice" said Anya when we got to our table.

"Darry and Soda helped a little bit" I said.

The dinner was really nice. We even danced while we were waiting for our dinner. I didn't want that moment to end. For a moment, everything seemed perfect. I wanted to stay like that forever, but I knew I had to come back down to earth sometime.

When the dinner was over, we went to the park. We almost always went to the park whenever we went on a date.

"Remember the first time we came here?" asked Anya, "it was after we went to the support group. We talked about what we both wanted to be when we grow up."

"I remember. This is where we kissed for the first time" I said, getting a blanket from the car. I spread it out underneath the tree so that we could sit down. I put my arm around Anya and we both just sat there for a while, looking up through the branches at the stars.

"I never noticed the stars before" said Anya, "I was always so busy with whatever was going on, I didn't have time."

"They are a sight to see, aren't they?"

"Yes they are" she said, leaning against me.

"Anya" I began. She raised her head and looked up at me.

"We've been together for a long time now" I said.

"2 years" said Anya.

"Those have been the best 2 years of my life. I've learned one thing from being with you for so long. I've learned that you're the only one for me." I positioned myself so that I was on my knee.

"Anya" I began, pulling the ring out of my pocket, "will you marry me?"


	5. Thunderstorm

I was totally blown away. I knew there was some reason Ponyboy was pulling out all the stops for this date but I didn't think he would propose to me. I thought about it for a minute. I love him and Davanee with all of my heart. They meant everything to me. That whole family meant everything to me. They replaced my real family.

"Yes" I said, just above a whisper. I could feel tears coming to my eyes, but I wasn't sad. I was so happy I wanted to cry.

Pony jumped up and gave me a big kiss. We then proceeded to go home. We had to tell everyone the good news. Ponyboy was so happy that night, he was glowing.

"I can't believe it" I said, "I can't believe we're actually getting married. We have a lot to do."

"I know" said Pony.

"I don't think I want a wedding dress" I said.

"What?" asked Pony.

"Well, I mean I do want a dress but not a wedding dress. I'm sure they make fancy white dresses that aren't wedding dress. Wedding dresses are so expensive. We don't have that kind of money" I said, looking at my ring. It was beautiful.

"You know I was afraid that you weren't going to like that. I was afraid that you were going to want something big" he said.

"No. I love this one" I said. I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

"We have to set a date" I said.

"Right now?" asked Pony.

"Not right now but soon" I said.

"We can talk about all of this stuff tomorrow. Right now let's just enjoy the moment" said Ponyboy, leaning over to give me a kiss. When we arrived at the house, I could see that the light was on in the living room. We walked in to find just about everyone sitting in the living room.

PONY'S POV

"What happened?" asked Soda.

"Davanee come here" I said. She jumped down from the couch and walked over to me. I whispered the answer in her ear and told her to tell everybody else.

"She say yes! I gonna have a mommy!" she shouted, running over to Anya and giving her a hug. There was a lot of celebrating that night. Davanee tried to stay up longer but she couldn't make it.

"Let me do it" said Anya, "after all, I am going to be her mom."

I smiled and said "don't take too long." I gave Davanee a kiss goodnight and watched as the two most important girls in my life walked down the hall together. I could tell Anya was going to be a good mom. She was one of those people who are just destined to be a parent. I followed them and stood outside the door.

"So Davanee" said Anya, "what do you think about me being your new mom?"

"I love it" said Davanee.

"It's pretty cool, isn't it?"

"Vewy cool" said Davanee.

"You know you're going to be at our wedding" said Anya.

"Awesome" said Davanee, "will you sing me a song?"

"What song would you like me to sing?" asked Anya.

"You pick" said Davanee.

"Alright. I'll sing the song my mom use to sing to me" said Anya

She sang

_You are my sunshine_

_My only sunshine._

_You make me happy_

_When skies are grey_

_You'll never know dear_

_How much I love you_

_Please don't take my sunshine away_

She sang that until Davanee fell asleep. I had forgotten how beautiful her voice sounded. I melted at the sound. Anya kissed Davanee goodnight and turned the lights off.

I gave her a kiss as she came out of the room.

"What was that for?" she asked.

"You'll make a wonderful mom" I said giving her another kiss.

"You really think so?" she asked.

"Of course I do. I wouldn't ask you to marry me if I didn't" I said. The fact that I was engaged still hadn't sunk in. It probably wouldn't for a little while.

"I gotta go to bed" said Anya, pulling away from me, "I gotta go to work tomorrow."

"Fine" I said, "maybe Davanee and I will come and see you."

"I'd love that" she said. I gave her one last kiss before she left. She smiled at me before she disappeared into her room. I went to my room. I was getting a little tired myself.

The next morning, I awoke to the sound of little feet running around the house. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. When I opened the door, I was greeted with a hug from Davanee.

"Morning Daddy" she said.

"Morning sweetie" I said, picking her up.

"Guess what we're doing today" I said, walking to the kitchen.

"What?" asked Davanee.

"We're gonna go see Anya, Uncle Soda, and Uncle Steve at work today" I said.

"When?" she asked.

"When you're done with your breakfast" I said. I made her breakfast. Like the rest of us, she liked eggs, except she ate hers with peanut butter. It kinda reminded me of how Soda ate his with jelly.

Once she was done, I helped her get dress. It's not that she couldn't get dressed by herself it's just that she didn't know that certain things didn't match. That day, I managed to put her hair into two little pig tails. There were a few bumps but they didn't look that bad. Once I was ready to go, we started our walk towards the gas station.

It was really busy when we got there but then again it was a Saturday. The DX was always busy on Saturdays. We had to wait a little while to talk to Anya and Soda. They were both busy helping customers.

I let Davanee go in the garage with Steve.

Finally the crowd left.

"I thought they would never leave" said Soda.

"Hey man, those 12-14 year old girls love you" I said.

"I know, I know. It gets real annoying sometimes" said Soda, "the only 14 year old girl that doesn't like me is Maddie."

"Yeah well, Maddie's got a perfectly good reason" I said.

"And what would that be?" he asked.

"She's got a boyfriend" I said.

"What? Since when? Who is he?" asked Soda.

"I don't know when but his name is Joey" I said.

"Have you met him?" asked Soda.

"No but I'm sure this is him" I said. Maddie was coming in with some boy and Dillon.

"Hey" said Maddie.

"Hey, Maddie" said Soda, "haven't seen you in a long time. What brings you here?"

"Well, Joey needed gas so we thought we'd come to the best station in town" said Maddie, "oh, Joey, this is Ponyboy and Sodapop Curtis. They live right down the road from me."

"Ponyboy? Sodapop? What weird names" said Joey.

"Nice meeting you too" said Soda.

Joey was a little taller than Maddie. He looked real tough too. His hair was jet black and greased back. His eyes looked cold, almost as cold as Dallas's. He had on jeans and a brown leather jacket with a black shirt. I had seen him somewhere before but I couldn't think of where.

"So what have you guys been up to lately?" asked Maddie.

"Ponyboy proposed to Anya" said Soda.

"You did? When?" asked Maddie in disbelief.

"Last night, at the park under the tree. I took her out to dinner at this really nice restaurant first" I said.

"Oh my God! That's so romantic. Is she working today?" asked Maddie.

"Yeah she's in the garage with Steve. Why?" asked Soda.

"I wanna see the ring" she said, walking out the door that led to the garage. She left Dillon with Joey.

"So Joey how old are you?" asked Soda.

"16. I'll be 17 in a couple of months" he said.

"You do know Maddies' 14, right?" I asked.

"Yeah I know" said Joey. When he said that, I remembered where I had seen him. He hung out with Tim Shepard and his gang. That wasn't good. It's not that I didn't like Tim or Curly it's just that the boy that they hung out with weren't the best. Those boys made Dallas look good, and that's saying something. I'm not sure if I was ok with Maddie dating Joey, but then again it really wasn't my place to say who she should and should not date. She wasn't my daughter.

Just then, Maddie and Anya came in. Even though she was covered in oil, she still looked good.

"Anya, this is Joey. Joey, this is Anya" said Maddie.

"Hi" said Anya.

"Hi" said Joey.

After a moment of silence, Joey made an excuse to leave the room. He said that he had to be someplace and that he would see Maddie later. Once he was gone, Maddie asked "what do you think?"

"He seems interesting" I said.

"I don't know if I like you dating him" said Soda.

"Why not?" she asked.

"He involved with Tim Shepard and his gang. Those boys can be real tough" said Soda.

"Well, he's not tough. He's nice" said Maddie in Joey's defense.

"He hasn't done anything to you, has he?" I asked.

"No" said Maddie.

"Maddie" said Soda.

"Honestly, he hasn't. I would've told you if he did" said Maddie.

"Ok" I said. Maddie decided to leave. She also said that she had somewhere to be.

"Something's not right" I said.

"Maddie's a big girl" said Anya, "she'll be ok. Besides, if anything goes wrong odds are she bound to come running to one of us."

"You're probably right" I said, "where's your ring?"

"Its right here" said Anya, pulling it out of her pocket "I took it off so I wouldn't loose it and it wouldn't get dirty." Anya slipped it back on.

"Well, listen I gotta get back to work but I'll see y'all later" said Anya.

I gave her a kiss goodbye and said "bye, baby. See you when you get home."

Just as she left, Davanee and Steve came in. To my surprise, Davanee wasn't dirty.

"Uncle Soda!" shouted Davanee, giving Soda a hug.

"Hey shorty" said Soda, picking her up "What'cha been up to?"

"Nothin'" she said.

"Come on, sweetie" I said, taking her from Soda, "we gotta go before it starts to rain."

"Ok. Bye" said Davanee, waving her little hand.

"See ya shorty" said Soda. Davanee and I walked quickly so that we'd be home before it started to rain. Sure enough, as soon as we got inside, I started pouring. Davanee stayed close to me when it started thundering and lightning. She hated the thunder and lightning.

Just as I was starting to make dinner, the phone rang.

"Hello" I said.

"Hey, babe" said Anya.

"Where are you? I thought you were coming home early today" I said.

"I was but I got stuck at the station. I'm afraid Soda and I won't be home until it stops raining" said Anya.

"Alright. I guess we'll have to start dinner without you" I said.

"Oh yeah, Darry called. He said he's stuck at work too. It's just you and Davanee tonight" said Anya.

"That's ok. You guys come home when it stops raining, ok? I don't want you driving through the rain. I'd like for you to make it to our wedding day" I said.

"Me too. I promise, I'll stay until it stops. I gotta go now" she said.

"Ok, bye" I said.

"Bye." I hung up the phone.

"Who dat?" asked Davanee.

"That was Anya. They're not coming home until later" I said.

"Why?"  
"Because of the storm. It's just gonna be you and me tonight, kiddo" I said.

"No Uncle Darry?" she asked.

"Nope. He's stuck at work too" I said.

"Oh" said Davanee. She continued to color in one of her coloring books. I went back to making dinner. Right as I was about to put dinner on the table, the power went out.

"Daddy? Where are you?" asked Davanee.

"Right here" I said, lighting a candle.

"Daddy, I scared" she said, holding on to me.

"Oh, it's ok baby." I set the candle down on the table.

"We'll just have to eat in the dark" I said. Davanee sat down at her usual place at the table, but scooted a little closer to me.

I waited for what seemed like hours for everyone to get home. Davanee tried to stay up and wait for them but she couldn't. She fell asleep on the couch around 9. They didn't get home till 11.

"What took you so long?" I asked.

"You said you didn't want us driving home when it was raining real hard was we waited until it lightened up a little" said Anya, "where's Davanee."

"She fell asleep. She tried to stay up but she couldn't" I said.

"Oh, well, I'm gonna go to bed. I'll see you in the morning" said Anya, giving me a kiss goodnight.

"Night" I said. I went to bed too. Soda said he would stay up and wait for Darry. I was awoken in the middle of the night by somebody whispering "daddy." I opened my eyes to see Davanee standing in front of me, holding her teddy bear.

"Davanee, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I scared. I sleep in here?" she asked.

I sighed and said "yeah, sure."

"Teddy too?"

"Teddy too."

Davanee climbed in between Soda and I.

"Night daddy" she said, giving me a kiss, "night Uncle Soda." She gave him a kiss too but he was asleep.


	6. wedding plans

Chapter 6

"We have to set a date" said Anya. That afternoon was devoted to planning the wedding. I had no idea there was so much to do before getting married.

"Well, how long do you think it will take to plan it?" I asked.

"I don't know. I don't really want a big wedding" said Anya.

"Let's make an invitation list first" I said.

"Ok" she said. I got out a pen and paper.

"Let's start with your brothers. I mean, it would be wrong to not invite them" said Anya. So I wrote down Soda and Darry.

"What about your brother and his girlfriend?" I asked.

"They broke up" she said.

"So it's just your brother?" I asked.

"Yep" she said. So I added Tommy's name to the list.

"And obviously we have to invite the gang. I mean, I would feel terrible if we didn't" said Anya. I added even more names to the list.

"What about your parents?" I asked.

"I don't know if my dad would want to come but I know my mom would" said Anya. Over the past two years, Anya and her mom had gotten really close. She was still trying to work things out with her dad.

"Ok. I'll put your dad's name down just in case" I said, scribbling the names.

"What about Maddie and Dillon?" I asked.

"She's gonna be my maid of honor" she said.

So I just added Dillon's name.

"What about her new boyfriend?" I asked. Anya just shook her head no.

"Oh, don't forget Hailey and her grandparents" said Anya.

So I added Hailey and her grandparents.

"Anybody from school?" I asked. Anya thought about it for a minute. She didn't really have a lot of friends outside of school. It's not that she didn't have friends it's just that I don't really think she liked the people at school.

"None that I can think of. You?" she asked. I thought about it for a minute. Like Anya, I didn't really have a whole lot of friends at school.

"What about Mark and Bryon?" I asked.

"We can invite them." That's two more names to the list.

"And Tim and Curly" added Anya. Again, another two.

"I think that's good for right now" said Anya.

"Yeah, we can add people if we really need to" I said. Just then, the phone rang.

"I'll get it" I said, "hello."

"Hello" said Anya's mom, Mrs. Wilson.

"Mrs. Wilson, how are you doing?" I asked.

"Fine. I just got Anya letter today. Congratulations" she said.

"Oh thank you" I said.

"Have you two set a date yet?" she asked.

"No ma'am, we were just talking about that now. Would you like to talk to her?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure" she said. I handed the phone to Anya.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"It's your mom" I said.

"Mom" said Anya into the phone. The two of them talked for over half an hour. When Anya got off the phone, her, Maddie, and Davanee went out to pick out a dress. I was invited to go but I thought I wouldn't be too helpful. I know nothing about shopping, let alone shopping for a dress. While they were out, Soda and I went to go find our tuxes. It didn't really take that long but it did require for us to go way into soc territory. There were a lot of people looking at us, like they knew we didn't belong. The fitting didn't take that long. It only took about an hour or so.

We finished up there and went home. When we got home, we found Maddie and Anya in the kitchen. They were making dinner.

"Hey. Where'd you guys go?" asked Anya.

"We went to get out tuxes. How'd dress shopping go?" I asked.

"Pretty good" said Anya.

"Did you find a dress?" I asked.

"Yeah. You wanna see it?" asked Anya.

"I dunno. Isn't it bad luck?" I asked.

"No. Your thinking about seeing the bride before the ceremony" said Maddie. Anya dropped whatever it was she was doing and got the dress. The dress wasn't much but it was pretty. It was a short white dress with a white waistband.

"No veil?" I asked.

"No. We couldn't find one that would work" said Anya, "I think it looks nice without the veil."  
"I think it does too" I said, "you're not upset that you couldn't get a real wedding dress, are you?"

"No" said Anya, "I was at first but now I'm not. I love this one."

"I helped" said Davanee, who was sitting at the kitchen table with her teddy bear.

"Why don't you show Daddy your dress" said Anya.

"Ok" said Davanee, getting up from the table, "come on Daddy." Davanee grabbed my hand and led me to her room. The dress was lying out on the bed. It was pink and it had ruffles and a hat.

"Did you pick that one out yourself?" I asked.

"Yes I did" she said.

"It's a very pretty dress" I said.

"I know, that's why I pick it" she said, "Anya say I not suppose to touch it."

"That's probably a good idea. You don't wanna ruin it before the wedding" I said.

"Anya say I gonna be fwower girl" said Davanee.

"You are. You've got a very important job" I said.

"What I do?"

"Well, you throw petals down the isle. I know it doesn't sound important but trust me, it is" I said.

"Ok, I twust you" she said, "time for dinner." Davanee led me back to the kitchen, as if I didn't know where it was. Darry was late that night so he missed dinner. He's been working a lot lately. I kinda felt bad for making Darry and Soda pay for the whole thing. That's why I decided to get a job. I started working at the movie theatres on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights or any other night I didn't have school. When I told Darry about that he said I didn't have to but I felt obligated to.

That night was a Thursday, which meant I started the next day. The next day I arrived at the theatre around 4. My shift didn't start till 4:30 but the manager told me to be there early. My shift didn't end until 11. I could tell that it was going to be a long night. I waited on a bench in the lobby of the theatre.

"Ponyboy Curtis?" asked a man who was standing over me. He was an older man. His hair was grey and he had wrinkles under his eye.

"That's me" I said, standing up.

"Tim Grey" said the man, shaking my hand, "I'll show you around."

Tim took me on a tour of the theatre and introduced me to all the employees. Most of them where my age but there were one or two who were younger than me.

"Tonight you'll be on clean up duty. That's where all the new employees start" said Tim, "you'll be working with my son John. Tonight, you and John are responsible for cleaning house 1. After that you move on to the lobby. After the lobby are the hallways and after the hallways are the bathrooms, got it?" asked Tim.

"Yes sir" I said.

"Good. Now let's get one thing straight, I don't tolerate any acting up. You get in trouble with me or the law and you're outa here, got it?"

"Yes sir. You don't have to worry about me actin' up" I said.

"Oh yeah, why's that?"

"Well, I have a 2 year old daughter, sir. Plus I live with my older brothers. If I do anything that'll get me arrested, I might get taken away from them" I said.

"Those are some pretty good reasons. Now, let me introduce you to John" said Tim, leading me behind the concession stand to a small room. Part of it looked like a storage room and the other part looked like a room. There was a boy in there who was getting some brooms and dust pans.

"Ponyboy, this is my son John. John, this is Ponyboy. You'll be working with him tonight. I have to go. I've got some other business to attend to" said Tim leaving the room.

"Follow me" said John, handing me a broom and other cleaning supplies.

"I guess my dad already told you our schedule" said John.

"Yeah, he told me" I said.

"Ok. We start here. We gotta wait till the movie is over" said John, leaning up against the wall. I did the same.

"How old are you?" asked John.

"16. You?" I asked.

"14" said John.

"That's a little young to be working, don't ya think?" I asked.

"According to my dad, no. All of my brothers and sisters started working here when they were 14" said John.

"How many of them do you have?" I asked.

"3 sisters, 2 brothers. All older" said John.

"Must be a full house" I said.

"Yeah but you get use to it" said John, "you got any brothers or sisters?"

"Yeah I have two brothers. Both older" I said.

"Well that doesn't sound too bad."

"Trust me it is. There are my 2 brothers, my daughter, my fiancé, me, and any member of the gang who might come over to use the couch. It's a lot of people" I said.

"You have a daughter?" asked John.

"Yeah. I have a 2 year old named Davanee" I said.

"If you don't mind me asking, how old where you………uh……"

"Your age" I said.

"14? God, my parents would kill me. What'd yours do when they found out?"

"Both of my parents died in a car accident before it happened" I said.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's ok. It happened a long time ago" I said. We continued to talk for a little while longer. Pretty soon the movie let out. John turned out to be a pretty nice kid. He wasn't a trouble maker like most kids in our neighborhood and he was nicer. He sort of reminded me of me when I was younger. Now that I think about it, I've changed a lot over the past 2 years. When I was 14, I was scared and had no idea what I was doing. Sure, there are times when I get scared but at least I have a better idea of what I'm doing.

I didn't get home until 12 that night. To my surprise, nobody stayed up and waited for me. They were all asleep. Before I went to my room, I checked on Davanee. She was sound asleep. I cracked the door and went to my own room. Soda was dead to the world. I fell asleep once my head hit the pillow, I was that tired.

I woke up early the next morning. I even got up before Davanee which is odd because she is almost always up before me. I was in the middle of making breakfast when I heard the shuffling of little feet coming down the hall. I looked up to see Davanee standing in the doorway, her teddy bear in one hand and her blanket in the other.

"Morning Daddy" she said, her voice groggy.

"Morning sweetie" I said, picking her up.

"What are we doing today?" she asked.

"We are going to do some more planning today. You are going over to Dillion's house today" I said.

"When?" she asked.

"Whenever you're done with breakfast and you're dressed" I replied.

"Ok" said Davanee. Davanee rushed through breakfast and getting dressed. She always like going to Dillon's house. She said that there was more stuff to do there then there was at our house. I walked her over that morning then walked over to the DX so Anya and I could do a little planning while she was on her break.

"We still need to set a date. Let's do that before we do anything else" said Anya.

"Ok" I said.

"I don't think we'll need that long because we're not doing the reception, are we?" she asked.

"Well we could have it at our house. We don't have to have a caterer. The only thing we'd have professionally done is the cake. You already have your dress. I already have my tux. We've made up most of the guest list. All we need is to book a church" I said.

"How much do you think the church will cost?" she asked.

"17 guest. 20 counting ourselves and Davanee" I said.

"I'm sure the church won't be that much with only 20 people" said Anya.

"It probably won't" I said.

"So we've got most of the planning done sense we're not really doing anything to big. I say let's plan 3 months from now" she said.

"Ok so today is May 5th so the date would be August 5th, right before school goes back" I said.

"Perfect" she said, "now all we need is the invitations."

"We can start looking for churches tomorrow" I said.

"That works out perfectly because I have off tomorrow" said Anya.

"Why?" I asked.

"I dunno" she said, "does it really matter?"  
"Of course not" I said.

"Well, I gotta go back to work now. I'll get in trouble if I don't" she said.

"Alright. What time will you be home tonight?" I asked.

"I dunno. Probably around 6" she said.

"Ok. See ya when you get home" I said, giving her a kiss goodbye.


	7. Travelin' Soldier

Chapter 7

PONY'S POV

I had to take Davanee to work with me that night. Nobody was going to be home to watch her. My boss said it was ok just as long as she didn't get in the way. I brought some stuff for her to do so she stayed entertained.

"Now Davanee, you sit right here until we're done" I said. We had to clean one of the theatres.

"Yes Daddy" said Davanee.

"Here, why don't you draw a picture" I said, getting her some paper and crayons.

"I draw picture for you" she said.

"That's my girl" I said, giving her a kiss. I started helping John clean the theatre.

"She's cute" he said.

"I know. Everybody says that" I said.

"You know she's pretty well behaved for a 2 year old" said John.

"Yeah well, she has her moments" I said, "believe it or not she has been to time out before." We spent about an hour cleaning the theatre. It wasn't all that bad.

"Daddy, I done!" yelled Davanee from her seat in the front row.

"Good, now do another one" I said.

"I don't wanna" she said.

I sighed and said to John "I'll be right back." I walked down to where Davanee was sitting. "Why don't you wanna draw another picture?" I asked.

"I wanna pway wid Barbie" she said.

"Alright" I said. I pulled a Barbie out of her backpack and put her drawing in.

"Now when we're done here, we can go home" I said.

"Good, I gettin' sleepy" she said. I finished up at the movie theatre then took Davanee home. I had to carry her out to the car because she had fallen asleep. When we got home, everyone was asleep. So, I put Davanee down and went to bed myself. I had a long day that day and I was ready for it to end. It's not that it was bad or anything, it was just long.

That night, I woke up to the sound of Davanee screaming. There's nothing more terrifying then hearing your child scream in the middle of the night. I immediately jumped out of bed and ran to her room. She was still asleep but screaming. She was having a nightmare. Before I could do anything about it, she woke up. She got out of bed and ran to me.

"Daddy, I scared" she said through tears.

"Shhhh, its ok baby. Daddy's here" I said, rubbing her back. Whenever I had a bad dream when I was little, mom would always rub my back. I don't know why, but it always helped.

After a couple of minutes, she went right back to sleep. So did I. As I lay in bed, I thought that Davanee might have the same dreams I use to have. I hope I was wrong.

The next morning seemed to be a relatively normal morning. Davanee came in to wake me up, like she always does. Davanee and I went to the park, like we almost always do. When we got home that afternoon, I was a bit surprised to see Anya and Soda home so early but something wasn't right. The look on Soda's face told something had happened. Something big. Once I put Davanee down for a nap, I went and sat on the couch next to Soda. The TV was on but he wasn't watching it. He was just staring at the wall in front of him.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He didn't answer.

"Soda come on, I'm your brother. You can tell me" I said.

"I got drafted" he said in a voice that was just above a whisper. I could feel a lump in my throat.

"When?" I asked.

"I leave in 5 days" he said, "Steve too."

I fell silent. What could you say after receiving news like that? Or better yet, is there really anything you can say? I tried hard to keep the tears back. I couldn't cry in front of Soda. That would only make things worse. I could always cry later when he's not around. Dinner that night was silent, except Davanee. She sang the whole time. After dinner, everybody just watched TV or went to beds. The rest of that week went by pretty fast and before I knew it, it was the night before Soda had to leave. I was about to give Davanee a bath and put her to bed but Soda stopped me.

"I wanna do it" he said.

SODA'S POV

I didn't realize how hard it was to give a 2 year old a bath. There was more water on the floor then the tub.

I was tucking Davanee in when she asked "uncle Soda, why you sad?"

I laid down next to her in her bed.

"Sweetie, I have to away" I said.

"Where ya goin'?" she asked.

"Vietnam" I said.

"Where dat?"

"It's all the way over on the other side of the world" I said.

"That a long ways" she said, "when you come back?"

"I don't know. In a year, maybe 2" I said.

"You leave me for a year" she said.

"I'm sorry baby. I have to. I have no choice but I'll write. I'll write everyday" I said, "besides, I wanna hear all about that wedding and I want you to draw me some pictures. Can you do that for me?" I asked.

"Yeah. I do dat" she said.

I said "ok" and gave her a kiss goodnight. I was almost out of the room when Davanee said "I'll miss you." I could feel the tears coming to my eyes but I couldn't cry in front of her. I said "I'll miss you too" and cracked the door. I just went straight to bed. I didn't feel like staying up late that night.

The time soon came for me to say goodbye. I never thought I would have to do that.

I gave everyone a hug goodbye. The last person I said goodbye to was Davanee.

"Bye" she said, waving her little hand.

"Bye, baby" I said, giving her a hug and a kiss. I gave the gang one last look. I know this sounds negative, but I thought that was the last time I was going to see them again. I sure Steve was thinking the same thing.

PONY'S POV  
We left a couple of minutes after we watched Soda and Steve leave. The car ride home was pretty quiet. Davanee didn't even say anything. She normally always had something to say. The rest of that day seemed pretty quiet. Darry and Anya went back to work. I took Davanee to the park. We only stayed there for a couple of minutes.

"Daddy, I no wanna play no more" she said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"I miss Uncle Soda" she said.

"Well he'll be back soon. He'll only be gone for a little while" I said.

"Promise?" she asked.

"I'll try" I said. There was no way I could promise that Soda would come home soon. For all I know, he may never come home.

"Ok" said Davanee. We walked home. Normally we would've gone to the DX but I wasn't up to it. When we got home, Davanee watched TV while I started dinner. Dinner that night was really quiet. It just wasn't the same without Soda there. It felt strange to see his chair at the dinner table empty. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who felt that way.

The next couple of weeks were pretty uneventful. Davanee and I were walking home from Maddie's house one day when I decided to check the mail. Anya usually gets the mail but I decided to do it that day. It was just bills and junk for the most part until I cam across a letter that was addressed to me. That was odd because I never got mail. It was a letter from Soda.

"Wat dat?" asked Davanee, referring to the letter.

"It's a letter from Uncle Soda" I said.

The letter read

_Dear Ponyboy,_

_I was just writing to tell you that I made it here in one piece. Steve and I get to stay in the same infantry. I never realized how rough things are over here, Pony. I've only been here a couple of weeks and already I've seen some pretty bad things. Things that I won't be able to forget. I wish I was home with you guys. I wrote Darry and Anya letters too but I think this one should get there first. I'm real sorry I won't be there for the wedding. I want you to tell me all about it and send pictures. I already told Davanee to send some drawings. I can't wait to hear from you guys. I think the address is on the envelope. _

_Your brother,_

_Sodapop_

As I read the letter, I wondered what kind of things Soda had seen. It's not that I really wanted to see them too.

"Is Uncle Soda ok?" asked Davanee.

"Yeah he's ok. He says he misses us. He wants you to send him some pictures" I said.

"I know. I drew this one" she said. Davanee held a picture of two stick figures with clothes. One of them I guess was suppose to resemble Soda and the other Davanee.

"That's good, sweetie. Let's put it on the icebox so we don't lose it" I said. I stuck it on the icebox along with all her other pictures.


	8. No, i'm the baby

Chapter 8

Weeks passed before we got another letter from Soda. We sent him a couple. We don't watch the news anymore, or listen to it on the radio, or read about it in the papers. It's all bad news. From what I understand, soldiers are dropping left and right over there. I was hopping Soda and Steve weren't any of those soldiers.

One day, when I was about to leave for school, I saw a letter on the kitchen table addressed to me. I knew right away it was from Soda.

"Hey, Davanee!" I called.

"Yeah?!" she called back.

"We got another letter from Uncle Soda" I called. Davanee came running in the room.

"Wat it say?" she asked.

I read the letter aloud.

The letter said:

_Dear Ponyboy,_

_It's really good to hear from you guys. I love all those pictures Davanee sent. I've got them hanging up everywhere. The others guys don't mind if I put them up. They said those pictures remind them of there kids back home. I've met some pretty nice guys over here, most of which are older than me. There's Ricky who's about 24, 25 maybe. He's got a wife and kids back in Austin, Texas. He seems like a pretty cool guy. Then there's Danny. Danny is my age. I think he comes from New York. He kinda reminds me of Dallas. He's not a tough as Dallas and he doesn't have kids, but there's just something about him that reminds me of him. Then last but not least is Martin. Martin is kinda like Johnny. He's small for his age and he's got huge puppy dog eyes. It's almost like we have our own little gang over here. I hope everything over there is going ok. Don't let whatever you see on the TV get to you. It's not as bad as they make it out to be. Don't worry, I'll be home soon._

_Your brother_

_Soda_

I knew Soda was lying when he said it's not as bad as they make it out to be. It was probably a thousand times worse. I put the letter in the top drawer of my desk. That's where I put all of Soda's letters. Just in case something should happen to him, I wanted to save them.

When I went to school that night, I noticed that a couple of the boys in some of my classes were absent. The teachers had explained that they wouldn't be back for a long time. The house was quiet that night. Usually we had the TV and the radio on but lately things had been relatively quiet around there. The gang didn't come around as much and if they did it was only for a couple of minutes.

A couple of days after that, I took Davanee to Dairy Queen. It had been a long time since we'd been there. To my surprise, we found Johnny and Two-Bit sitting outside.

"Long time no see" said Two-Bit.

"Uncle Two-Bit! Uncle Johnny!" shouted Davanee.

"Hey girly" said Johnny. Davanee sat down next to Johnny. I was about to sit next to Two-Bit but then I saw the newspaper stand. The headline read "list of local Vietnam dead." I normally didn't read the paper but I was curious. I got the paper and sat down next to Two-Bit. Everyone at the table fell silent. I read the list aloud. Fortunately, Soda and Steve weren't on the list.

"That's a relief" said Two-Bit.

"Huge relief" I said.

"So what have y'all been up to? We haven't seen you guys in a while" said Johnny.

"Nothing really. We heard from Soda the other day. He says he's doing ok. He's made friends with a bunch of guys over there. He says they remind him a lot of the gang" I said.

"That's good" said Two-Bit.

"So what have you guys been up to?" I asked.

"I got a job over at the Tastee Freeze" said Johnny.

"What do you do?" I asked.

"I'm a waiter" said Johnny.

"How much do you make?" I asked.

"$1.00 an hour" said Johnny, "minimum wage."

"Not bad" I said.

"So what's this I hear about you and Anya getting married? I talked to her yesterday at the DX" said Two-Bit.

"Yeah, we're getting married on August 5th. It's gonna be pretty small with Soda and Steve gone" I said.

"Where's it gonna be?" asked Johnny.

"I don't know. We really haven't thought about a church yet. I mean, the reception, if you can call it that, will be at our house and we're not doing a rehearsal dinner" I said.

"Why not?" asked Two-Bit.

"It's saves money. Besides, I think we'll have rehearsed enough by then" I said. We stayed at the Dairy Queen for about an hour or so. Davanee started complaining that she was tired so we left. As you can probably guess, a 2 year old who hasn't napped yet is a bad, bad thing.

I put Davanee down for her nap once we got home. When I was about to walk out of the room, Davanee asked "Daddy, is Uncle Soda gonna die?" I felt my heart sink. How do you answer a question like that?

I turned around and said "of course not. What gave you that idea?"

"Man on news" she said.

"When did you watch the news?"

"Dillon's house" she replied.

"Oh. Sweetie, Uncle Sodas' not going to die. You shouldn't believe what you see on TV. Those people don't know what they're talking about" I said.

"You sure?" she asked.

"Positive. Now go to sleep" I said.

"Alright. I love you Daddy" said Davanee.

"Love you too, sweetie" I said, closing the door. I tried to tell myself that I was right about Soda not going to die but I had a feeling that I was wrong. I kept telling myself this the whole time Soda was gone, but I didn't believe myself. I never believe myself.

That afternoon, Davanee didn't wake up until around 4. I was in the kitchen working on my homework when I heard her feet and blanket dragging down the hall.

"Daddy" said Davanee from the door way.

"Hey, baby" I said. I got up from the table and picked her up.

"You sleep good?" I asked. She shook her head no.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Bad dream. Uncle Soda" she said.

"What about him?"

"Something bad happen to him" she said, rubbing her eyes.

"Nothing bad has happened to him. We'll get a letter from him soon" I said.

"Today?"

"No we didn't get one today. Maybe we'll get one tomorrow" I said. I was hopping that we would. It has been a little while since we've heard from him. I started dinner while Davanee played in the living room. I was just about done when Two-Bit and Johnny came over. Two-Bit sat down in front of the TV and flipped on the news.

"Two-Bit, turn it off" I said from the kitchen.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I don't want Davanee watching that. Turn it off" I said.

"Fine" said Two-Bit, sighing. He turned it to Mickey. Is it just me, or is Mickey always on?

"Dinner's ready!" I called. Just as I said that, Davanee walked in. I was a bit surprised because he's been working late a lot recently.

"Well this is a surprise" I said.

"What? What's so surprising?" I asked.

"You haven't been home in time for dinner lately" I said, "you've been working a lot."

"Yeah I know" said Darry. That night we didn't even bother to sit at the dinner table. We all just sat in the living room. We hardly ever ate dinner in the living room. We use to but that was right after mom and dad died and before Davanee was born. That night, Dallas dropped Bo off at our house. That wasn't like him. Ever since Bo was born, Dallas had spent every waking minute with her. It was like she was surgically attached to his hip or something.

"Where are you going?" I asked, taking the baby from him.

"Out. I would take Bo with me but it could be dangerous. I don't want her getting hurt" said Dallas.

"You don't need to explain it to me, I've been there before" I said.

"Thanks kid" said Dallas before he left.

"Any time" I said.

I took the baby inside and shut the door. It was getting hot out and I didn't want any of the cold air getting out. I let Bo play with some of Davanee's old toys. Davanee didn't seem to mind much. She actually played with Bo for a little while. Davanee tried to get Bo to color but it didn't work.

"Daddy, she not coloring" said Davanee.

"Honey, she's a baby. Babies don't know how to color. You didn't know how to color when you were a baby" I said.

"Then what I do with her?" she asked.

"Try playing your music box for her. She'd probably like that" I suggested.

"I can't" she said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Uncle Soda give me dat" she said.

"Oh, right. Try playing with one of your teddy bears" I suggested.

"Ok" said Davanee. The rest of the night went pretty well, that is until bed time came. Earlier that day I set up Davanee's old crib so Bo could go to sleep.

"Bed time" I announced. I decided to be nice and let Davanee skip her bath that night.

"Bo going too?" she asked.

"Yep, Bo's coming too" I said. I changed Bo into her pajamas and got her to fall asleep. Then I helped Davanee with her pajamas.

"Hey" she said, "how come she in my crib?"

"Because she's a baby. Babies sleep in cribs" I said, pulling a shirt over her head.

"But dat's mine" said Davanee.

"But you're a big girl. You don't need a crib anymore. You get to sleep in a big girl bed" I said.

"No I not. I a baby" she said. Then she went over to the crib and screamed as loud as she could. Of course, Bo woke up.

"Davanee, why'd you do that? You woke the baby up" I said, trying to get Bo to stop crying.

"Good. Now she go home" said Davanee, hands on her hips.

"I'll be right back. You stay right there" I said. I took the baby out to Darry.

"Can you watch her for a minute?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure" said Darry, taking the baby from me. I walked back into Davanee's room only to find her sitting in the crib.

"Davanee, get out of the crib" I said.

"No."

I lifted her out of the crib and placed her on her bed.

"You and I gotta have a talk" I said.

"Am I in trouble?" she asked.

"No. What's wrong?"

"Nothing" she said.

"Come on, something's wrong. Why are you acting like a baby? You're 2 years old. You're a big girl" I said.

"I know. You like her more dan me" said Davanee.

"Who?"

"Bo."

"Sweetie, I don't like Bo more than you. Bo's a baby; babies need a lot of attention. You're a big girl, you can do a lot of things for yourself" I said.

"Like what?" she asked.

"Well, you can eat on your own. Bo can't do that, she still needs someone to help her. You can drink out of a cup. Bo still uses a bottle. You can draw, push yourself on the swings, slide down the slide all by yourself" I said.

"Dat a lot" she said.

"Yeah, that is a lot. You think you're gonna be ok now?" I asked.

"Yeah" said Davanee.

"Good" I said giving her a kiss goodnight, "I'll be right back." I walked out to the living room to get Bo. She was already asleep. I placed her in the crib and gave Davanee another kiss goodnight.

"What happened?" asked Darry.

"Davanee got jealous of Bo getting a lot of attention" I said.

"That's what happens when you have another baby around" said Darry.

"Yeah I kinda figured that."

"What'd you tell her?"

"I told her that she's a big girl and there's a lot of stuff she can do that babies can't. That was our first real father daughter talk" I said.

"What do you mean?" asked Darry.

"Well, when she was a baby I would talk to her but obviously she couldn't talk back but now it's different."

"Different how?"

"Well, she can actually tell me what's wrong. I mean, when she was a baby I basically had to guess what was wrong because she would cry for everything" I said.

"So what you're saying is that before it was just a one way conversation. You talking to her and her listening. Now it's a two way conversation. You talk and she listens. She talks and you listen" said Darry.

"Something like that" I said. Just then, Dallas came in. He didn't look too good.

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"Got jumped on the way here. Damn socs. You mind if we stay here tonight?" asked Dal.

"Dal, you know you don't have to ask" I said.

"Yeah, I know. Where's Bo?"

"She's asleep in Davanee's room."


	9. It's all my fault

Chapter 9

That whole day was devoted to finding the right church. We got turned down by a lot of churches. I think most of that had to do with the fact that we were 16 and had no parents. Correct me if I'm wrong, but God didn't say how old you're suppose to be when you're married. He didn't say that you have to have parents present either.

We were about to give up and go home until we found a small, white church on the side of the road. It was rather cliché if you ask me, but it was worth a shot. They said yes automatically, and to make things better, they would do it for free. There was only one problem; we had to change the date. We had to change it from August 5th to July 5th. Now, I didn't have any problem with that but I think Anya did. She started freaking out when we got back to the DX.

"Anya, calm down" I said.

"Calm down? Our wedding is now a month away and you want me to calm down?" she asked.

"Look, we can handle this. I mean, it's not like we have a whole lot to do. It's not like we booked a place for the reception" I said.

"That's true. It's just that, it's so soon" she said.

"Are you nervous?" I asked.

"Of course I am" she said.

"Nervous enough not to go through with this?"

"No, I'm not that nervous. Are you?"

"Yeah, but not that much."

"Honestly, I think I'm more excited than nervous. I mean, I've been planning my wedding since I was 5. Of course, that plan was a bit more extravagant than this but that's ok" she said.

"Are you upset because you don't get a big wedding?" I asked.

"No. I kinda was at first but I'm use to it now. I like the idea of having a small wedding" she said, "I gotta go back to work. I'll see you tonight."

I gave her a kiss and said "goodbye."

I left to go pick up Davanee. I left her with Maddie for the morning and I promised I would be there by 1. It was 12:30. Davanee was standing outside with Maddie and Dillon, waiting for me.

"Daddy!" she yelled, running up to me.

"Hey, sweetie" I said, picking her up.

"Did you have fun?" I asked.

"Lots of fun. I paint a picture" she said.

"Good. You'll have to show me when we get home" I said.

"Daddy, can we go to the park?" she asked.

"Ok but just for a little while. Daddy has to go to school tonight" I said.

"Can Dillon come?" she asked.

"I dunno. It's up to Maddie" I said.

"I wish he could, baby, but we've got other things to do today. Maybe some other time" she said.

"Ok" said Davanee.

"Thanks Maddie" I said.

"Anytime" she said. We made our way to the park. As we walked to the park, Davanee talked about everything she did with Maddie from the time I dropped her off to the time I picked her up. Once we were at the park, I let Davanee run around and play. We were the only ones there, that is until Two-Bit joined us. He claimed that he got bored walking around town.

I was talking to Two-Bit when I heard Davanee crying. I turned around to see that she was sitting on the ground, holding her wrist, crying. I ran over to her as fast as I could with Two-Bit behind me.

"Honey, what happened?" I asked.

"I fell off the slide. I hurt my wrist" she said.

"Can you move it?" I asked.

She tried to move it then she shook her head no. Two-Bit offered to drive us to the doctor.

We waited for what seemed like forever in the waiting room. There were thousands of other kids there, most with runny noses and coughs. Finally, one of the nurses called us back. They took x-rays of Davanee's arm. After that, the nurse showed us to an exam room. We had to do more waiting.

After about twenty minutes, Dr. Irene came in. It turns out Davanee broke her arm. She chose a pink cast. I felt terrible. I turned my back on her for two seconds and she falls off the slide and breaks her arm. When we got home, she went right to sleep with her arm dangling off the bed. Two-Bit left about an hour or so later. I started dinner while I waited for Darry to get home. I was almost done when I saw Davanee standing at the door, with her teddy in one arm and the other hanging down by her side.

"Hey, baby" I said, picking her up.

"Hi" was all she said.

"What's the matter?"

"It hurts" she said.

"Yeah I bet it does" I said. I have never broken a bone before so I really don't know how much it hurts.

"When's Uncle Darry comin' home?" she asked.

"He should be home in a couple of minutes" I said.

Davanee saw the mail sitting on the kitchen table.

"Letter from Uncle Soda?" she asked.

"No not today. We'll probably get one tomorrow. You think we should tell him about your accident?" I asked.

"Yeah. I draw picture" she said.

"Why don't you go work on that picture while I finish making dinner" I said. I helped Davanee get her crayons and paper. She normally would've done it herself but I left bad for her.

After a couple of minutes, Darry and Anya came home.

"Anybody home?!" called Anya.

"Yeah, in here" I said.

"Uncle Darry, Anya look" said Davanee, holding her arm up.

"What happened?" asked Darry.

"We went to the park today and Davanee fell off the slide" I explained.

"Daddy wasn't watching" added Davanee.

"Why weren't you watching her?" asked Anya.

"I was talking to Two-Bit. I had my back turned for 2 seconds and she fell" I said.

"It's ok. It don't hurt" said Davanee, lying of course.

"I thought you knew you are suppose to be watching her all the time" said Darry.

"I just turned my back for 2 seconds. No more turning my back, I promise" I said.

"Did we get a letter from Soda today?" asked Anya, changing the subject.

"No" I said, placing dinner on the table. I helped Davanee put away her crayons and paper. Dinner that night was relatively quiet, except for Davanee talking. She talked most of the time, like she always does. Sometimes I'm surprised that we're even related. She looks exactly like me but she acts so different. She's not shy like me. She can go up to anyone and say the most random things. Sometimes I envy her. I wish I could do that.

After dinner, let Davanee play with some of her toys. She played with everything except her army men. She stopped playing with those after Soda and Steve left. She just kept them in a box in the corner of her room.

When playtime was over, it was time for her bath. Normally she would've fought me but tonight was a bit different. It was kinda hard for her to fight me with a cast on her arm. We had to wrap her arm in a garbage bag so it wouldn't get wet.

When I was helping her get ready for bed, she asked "are you gonna tell Uncle Soda about my arm?"

"Only if you want me to" I said.

"You can if you want" she said.

"Maybe we can take a picture of it and send it to him" I said, tucking her in.

"Read me a story" she said.

"Alright. Which one?" I asked.

"Green egg and ham" she said.

"Again?"

"I like it" she said.

"Ok." So I read Green Eggs and Ham for the thousandth time. I was about halfway through the story when I realized that Davanee was asleep. I put the book back on the book shelf and shut the door behind me.

"She asleep?" asked Darry.

"Yeah. I kinda thought that she wouldn't with her cast" I said.

"Well, she'll get use to it and hopefully she won't have to wear one again" said Darry.

"Hopefully" I said, "I feel so bad about this. I mean, it wasn't even a minute."

"It's ok" said Darry, "accidents happen and you can't stop them from happening. She was probably gonna fall any ways."

I sighed and said "you're probably right." Darry was almost always right. After an hour or so, I went to bed. I was having a good night's sleep until something woke me up. I heard a loud crash come from the living room. I sprang from my bed to see what was up. At first I couldn't really see anything because it was so dark. All I could see was the outline of a person. Then I saw that this person was rather short and was dragging something. I turned on the lights to find Davanee standing in the middle of the living room with tears streaming down her face.

"Baby, what's wrong?" I asked, picking her up.

"Bad dream" she said, laying her head down on my shoulder.

"Well, what were you doing in the living room?"

"I dunno" she said.

"Come on, let's get you back to bed" I said.

"No, I sleep in your room. You protect me" she said.

"Protect you from what?" I asked.

"The bad people" she said.

"What bad people?" I asked.

"On TV. With the black hair. They hurt me" she said.

"Sweetie, nobody's gonna hurt you. I guess you can sleep in my room but just for tonight" I said. As I laid there in bed with Davanee sleeping beside me, I tried to figure out what she was talking about. She didn't really watch that much TV and when she did it was cartoons. The only people that I could think of that had black who had been on the news recently were the Vietnamese but like I said before, we didn't watch the news any more. Then something dawned on me. Davanee had been at Maddie's early that day. Maybe she had watched the news there. I would have to talk to Maddie about that..


	10. Wedding Day

Chapter 10

The night before the wedding was upon us before we knew it. Anya spent the night at Maddies. I found it impossible to sleep that night. I tried every trick in the book to fall asleep but nothing worked. When I was just about to fall asleep, Davanee came in.

"What's wrong, baby?" I asked.

"Can't sleep. I sleep in here?"

"Yeah, you can sleep in here" I said.

"I have bad dream" said Davanee as she crawled into bed with her teddy bear.

"What was it about?" I asked.

"The bad people. They hurt me again" she said. I had told Maddie the day after the first dream that I didn't want Davanee watching the news anymore. She said that she was guilty about letting them watch it but Davanee hadn't been over to Maddie's house since.

"How come you not sleep?" asked Davanee.

"I'm too excited" I said.

"About what?"

"The wedding."

"I excited too" said Davanee, "I get new mommy. I never had one before."

"I know" I said.

"How come I not have one?" she asked.

I thought about my answer for a minute. I couldn't tell her that her mom had abandoned her. You don't tell a 2 year old something like that.

"I'll tell you when you're older" I said.

"Ok" said Davanee, "what we do after wedding?"

"Well, you're going to stay here with Uncle Darry while I take Anya by the new apartment" I said.

"Where dat?"

"Its downtown. It's the one that we went to the other day" I said.

"Oh yeah, I wike that one" she said. I know it may sound like that I went behind Anya's back and bought an apartment without her looking at it first but the truth is I didn't. We looked at it a couple of weeks before and she loved it but I acted like I hated it and it was way out of our price range. Actually, I liked it just as much as she did and it was well into our price range. We already had everything planned out. Anya would go to school during the day and to work in the afternoon while I stayed home with Davanee. Then, at night I would go to school and she would stay home. That way, we could both go to school, keep our jobs, and Davanee wouldn't be home alone.

After a couple of minutes, both Davanee and I fell asleep. Davanee woke me up early that morning. The first thing we did was clean the house. That didn't take too long since we did most of it the day before. This was more making sure everything was in place then cleaning. After, Darry dropped Davanee off at Maddie's house along with her dress. I stayed at the house and got dressed. I must admit, I didn't look too bad. Once Darry was done getting ready, we headed down to the church. From what I understand Maddie, Davanee, and Anya were already there dressing room was all the way on the other side of the church.

I stood in the sanctuary and waited for people to arrive. While I was waiting, Davanee came running out the dressing with her dress on and her hair done. She looked so pretty. Her hair was pulled back with little curls in the back.

"Daddy, look" she said, climbing up on my lap.

"I see. You look very pretty. Who did your hair?"

"Maddie. She give me lollypop 'cause I sat still" she said, holding up the lollypop.

"I can see that" I said.

"And look at all the flowers" she said, showing her basket of flowers.

"I see and what are you suppose to do with all those flowers?" I asked. I knew what she was suppose to do but I wanted to see if she knew.

"I do dis." She got off my lap and started walking down the isle, throwing the flowers as she went.

"That's good" I said.

"Maddie show me" she said, picking up the flowers. She was the only two year old I knew who actually picked up after herself. A couple of minutes after, people started showing up. The first person to come was Two-Bit. He was actually wearing something that looked nice.

"Nice place" said Two-Bit as he walked in.

"Uncle Two-Bit" said Davanee, running up to him and giving him a big hug like she hadn't seen him in years.

"Hey, kid" he said, picking her up.

"Look at my dress. It's pretty" she said.

"Oh yeah, it's very pretty" he said, "So where is everyone?"

"Anya and Maddie are still getting ready. Darry's in the back somewhere and the rest aren't here yet" I said.

"Well, Johnny and Dallas should be here any minute. They were right behind me. What about Anya parents? I thought they we're coming" said Two-Bit.

"They are. They flew in last night. They called and said they would be here soon" I said, taking Davanee from Two-Bit.

"Daddy, I wanna go pway wid Dillon" said Davanee.

I said "ok" and put her down. She ran off in the direction of the dressing room.

"Don't get your dress dirty!" I shouted.

"I won't" said Davanee.

I sort of had a feeling she would anyways. It's a good thing that dress wasn't white. About an hour or so later, I found myself standing at the front of the church, with everyone's eyes on me, waiting for Anya. I could feel my palms getting sweaty. Then I heard the music start. I could see Davanee and Dillon standing at the other end of the isle. Davanee waved at me and I blew her a kiss. Maddie came up behind her and told Davanee and Dillon to start walking. Davanee threw the flowers ever where and once she got to the other end of the isle, shed dumped the rest of them out in a pile.

I couldn't help but laugh with every one else. Davanee just stood there and smiled. She then ran to join Dillon.

I could see Anya coming down the isle. She looked so pretty. She was about half way down the isle when she stopped. She had a nervous look on her face. She started to turn around but her mom stopped her. She talked to her a little while before Anya turned back around. She smiled at me and continued to walk. I just smiled back at her. The whole ceremony seemed to go by pretty slowly but I was ok with that. I wanted that moment to last forever. Well, maybe not forever.

After the ceremony, everybody went to our house. I surprise Anya by taking her over to the apartment before we went home.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"You'll see. It's a surprise" I said.

"Will I like this surprise?"

"I think so" I said.

We pulled into the parking lot a couple of minutes later. I lead Anya up to the fourth floor, were the apartment was.

"I love it" she said, taking a look around. Darry and I had already moved some furniture in there. The rest was coming later.

"Can we afford this?" she asked.

"Of course we can" I said, "I wouldn't have bought it if we couldn't."

"When can we move in?" she asked.

"Whenever you want" I said.

"Tonight?" she asked.

"If you want."

Anya went and looked around the rest of the apartment.

"I don't know if we can do this" said Anya.

"What? Why?" I asked.

"Well think about it. We're just kids. What are the chances of us actually making it? We don't even have a car" said Anya.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that" I said, pulling out a little box and handing it to Anya.

"You didn't" she said.

"No but you're parents did. Look outside" I said. Anya practically ran to the window.

"I know it's not much" I said, joining her at the window and putting my arm her, "but it works."

"That's ok. I love trucks anyways" she said, giving me a kiss.

"We better get back to the house. Everyone will be wonderin' about us" I said.

"Yeah. Can I drive the new truck?" she asked.

"Be my guest" I said, tossing her the keys. So while she was driving the new truck, I got stuck with the old one. It's ok though.


	11. The day after

Chapter 11

The party was what I had expected it to be, loud but fun. The best part for me was getting to shove cake in each other's face. Of course, it ended up getting every where. Now that I think about it, there really was no bad part about it. I think Anya felt the same. We spent the first hour or so of the party taking pictures, half of which we were going to send to Soda.

Once the party was over and the clean up was done, Anya and I went home. Darry agreed to keep Davanee for the night.

"Where ya goin'?" asked Davanee.

"We are going over to the apartment" I said.

"When you be back?"

"We'll be back tomorrow morning. We still have a lot of stuff we gotta pack up" I said.

"I come with?" asked Davanee.

"No, you're gonna stay here tonight" I said.

"What you do at the apartment?" she asked.

"Boring grown up stuff. You wouldn't like it. That's why you get to stay here and play" I said.

"Oh, ok" said Davanee.

"Ok. Now, you be a good girl while I'm gone. I don't wanna hear about you getting in trouble" I said, giving her a kiss.

"I won't" she said.

"That's my girl" I said. She gave me another kiss.

DARRY'S POV

Davanee and I stood on the front porch and waved as Ponyboy and Anya drove off.

"Now what?" asked Davanee.

"Now we go inside and you get a bath" I said.

"Do I have to?" she asked.

"Yes. Remember what your daddy said about getting in trouble?" I asked.

"I remember" said Davanee, and with that she followed me inside. After her bath, I put her to bed. She must have been exhausted. I was too. Once she was asleep, the house was quiet. It was so quiet, it almost scared me. I didn't like it but I guess I had to get use to it with Ponyboy moving out and Soda gone.

I went to bed shortly after Davanee fell asleep. I didn't really have anything better to do. Normally I would've watched TV or something but the only thing that was on was the news, and the news was mostly about what was going on in Vietnam. I didn't want to hear what was going on over there.  
It took me a little while to fall asleep that night, even though I was really tired. I fell asleep around 1. Davanee woke me up at 3.

"Uncle Darry, I have a bad dream" she said.

"It's ok, baby, go back to bed" I said.

"I can't" she said.

"Why not?"

"I scared" she said.

I sighed and got out of bed. I carried her back to her room and tucked her in again. She didn't wake up again until about 7, which is when she normally woke up. I was already up, making breakfast. She walked out to the kitchen dragging her blanket behind her. Davanee walked past me silently and sat down at the kitchen table.

"Morning" I said, placing a plate of eggs in front of her.

"Morning" she said in her usual cheerful, 2 year old voice, "when daddy coming?"

"In an hour or so" I said.

"You work today?" she asked.

"Yep, I gotta work today but not until this afternoon" I said.

"You help move?" she asked.

"Yep. We gotta finish packing up your room today" I said.

"What about Daddy room?" she asked.

"Part of it. Are you excited about the move?" I asked.

"Yeah. You move with us?" she asked.

"No, sweetie, I gotta stay here."

"Why?"

"Because someone has to look after this old house" I said.

"You come visit?" she asked.

"Only if you want me to" I said.

"I do. Daddy does too" she said, finishing up her breakfast. I helped her put her dish in the sink. She had just a couple more weeks until she got that cast off. After breakfast, I helped Davanee get dressed. I let her pick out what she wanted to wear, like Pony does. I found it kind of funny that they dressed almost the same, except Davanee's clothes were more girly. Once we were done getting dressed, Davanee helped me pack up her room. I made sure we left out a couple of toys for her to play with. We were almost done with her room when Ponyboy came in.

"Daddy!" shouted Davanee as she got up from her spot on the floor.

PONY'S POV

"Hey, sweetie" I said, picking her up, "did you have fun with Uncle Darry?"

"Tons of fun" she said, "we're packing my room."

"That sounds like fun" I said, sarcastically of course. I put Davanee down and let her go back to playing.

"So how'd it go last night?" I asked.

"Fine. She was good. She had a bad dream but aside from that everything was fine" said Darry, taping up a box.

"Did she say what it was about?" I asked.

"No, she just said she was scared" said Darry, "why?"

"I dunno. She's been having a lot of bad dreams lately. She keeps on saying someone's trying to hurt her or something" I said.

"Maybe you should take her to the doctors or something" said Darry.

"Don't you think she's a little too young to see a psychiatrist?" I asked.

"I dunno. It's worth a shot" said Darry.

There was a silence between us. I started helping him pack up the rest of the room but to be honest, I really wasn't paying all that much attention to what was going on. I was too focused on the night before. I thought for sure Darry was going to ask about the night before, but he never did. That's ok though, I had a feeling there would be someone who would ask eventually.

After about an hour or so, I helped Darry load the boxes from Davanee's room into the truck (the new one that is).

"Where's Anya?" he asked.

"She had to work today. Her boss wouldn't give her a couple of days off" I said.

"Oh" said Darry. When we were loading the boxes into the truck, I looked over at Maddie's house. I found it sort of strange that she didn't stay after the ceremony.

"You haven't seen Maddie around here, have you?" I asked.

"Not since yesterday, no" said Darry, "why? You lookin' for her?"

"No it's just that she didn't come over yesterday and I thought maybe something was up" I said.

"Maybe she was with her new boyfriend yesterday" said Darry as we put Davanee's bed frame in the truck.

"You know about him?" I asked.

"Yeah, I met him yesterday when I dropped Davanee off" said Darry.

"Kinda looks like Dallas, doesn't he?"

"Yeah in a weird way. You know, I don't think I like her dating that guy. Something's not right and she's not telling us about it" said Darry.

"Yeah, I have the same feeling. Maybe somebody should talk to her or something, find out what's going on" I suggested.

"Maybe you should talk to her. It'll be good practice."

"Practice for what?"

"When you talk to your daughter about her boyfriend" said Darry.

"That'll never happen. Davanee will never date" I said.

"I'll never do what, Daddy?" asked Davanee.

"Nothing, baby. Go play with your sidewalk chalk" I said. She just walked away without saying anything. Pretty soon, we had the back of the truck filled up. We drove over to the apartment and dropped it off. We did this a couple of times until we got everything we would need. The apartment still looked a little empty but I figured we could fix that.

Once we had all the boxes off the truck and in the apartment, Darry left. He had to work. I spent most of the day unpacking boxes while Davanee played in her new room. She seemed pretty happy with her room. Occasionally, I would take a break from unpacking and play with her. Because of the wedding and all, we didn't really get a chance to spend time together.

We were playing with her blocks when she asked "Daddy, I sleep in here tonight?"

"Yeah. This is your new room. You're gonna sleep in here every night" I said, helping stack the blocks. We were building a skyscraper.

"What about the bad people? They gonna get me" she said.

"Sweetie, we gotta talk about these bad people" I said.

"What about them?"

"What do they do to you?"

"They hurt me" she said.

"How do they hurt you?"

She didn't say anything.

"Davanee, you gotta tell daddy" I said.

She still didn't answer.

"You know, if you don't tell me what's going on I'm gonna have to take you to a special doctor. You wouldn't want that to happen, would you?" She shook her head no.

"Then tell me" I said.

She looked down at her feet.

"They hit me" she said after a while.

"Where?"

"On my head, hard. It hurts" she said.

I tried to get her to say more but she wouldn't say anything. I was worried. What had her so scared that she wouldn't sleep in her own bed? I know it might sound cruel to send a 2 year old to a phsyciatrist but I had to do something. I was about to sit back and watch her go through this night after night.

About an hour or so later, Anya came home.

"How was your day?" I asked, giving her a kiss.

"Fine. We have someone new workin' at the station" said Anya, "she's real nice."

"What's her name?" I asked.

"Ally" she said.

"Nice name" I said, "where does she live?"

Anya hesitated a moment before answering "in the old neighborhood. She's 13. She's a good kid. There's something not right about her. She hardly ever goes home and it doesn't look like she's showered in a long time."

"What do you think is wrong?" I asked.

"I dunno. I don't really know the girl all that well so maybe there's nothing wrong" she said.

"Maybe you should wait to get to know the girl a little better" I said.

"Yeah maybe. You should stop by sometime. I think you guys would get along" said Anya.

"I was thinking about taking Davanee by there tomorrow when I'm done with unpacking" I said.

"The boxes can wait" said Anya "where's Davanee?"

Before I could answer, Davanee came running down the hall.

"Does that answer your question?" I asked.

"Hey, sweetie" said Anya, picking Davanee up.

"Come see my new room" said Davanee. Anya set Davanee down and Davanee showed her to the room. I figured while Davanee was giving her the grand tour of the room, I would go get the mail. It was mostly bills, except for one. It was a letter from Soda.


	12. Big news

Chapter 12

_Pony,_

_Congrats on you and Anya getting married. I wish I could have been there. I would give anything to be there with you guys instead of here. I'm sorry to hear about Davanee's wrist. I hope she's feeling better. Tell her I liked all those pictures she made. They brighten the place up. Thanks for sending me all the pictures of the wedding. Anya and Davanee looked pretty in there dresses. I'm sad to say that you might not be hearing from me for a while. I would give more detail but I can't. I hope everything is going well with you and Anya so far. I can't wait to see pictures of that new apartment. I never thought that my baby brother would get married and move out before me but then again, I never thought you'd have kids before me either. _

_I met a girl over here. Her name is Molly. She's my age and she's a nurse. She is really nice and all, nothing like Sandy. You would like her. Who knows? Maybe you'll get to meet her some day. I wish I could say more but I have to go now. _

_Your brother,_

_Sodapop_

_P.S I wanna hear all about the wedding night in the next letter._

I was happy to hear from Soda. It had been a long time since we'd gotten a letter. I was even happier to hear that he met a girl. He hadn't dated anybody since he broke up with Sandy.

A couple of weeks passed and everything seemed to be going pretty well. To my surprise, married life wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Everything was working out for us. Both Anya and I had gotten promotions at work, which meant we both got paid more. Davanee seemed to like this new lifestyle too.

I had to be at work early that morning so I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to Anya. I was on my break when I got a call form her.

"Baby, you have to come home" she said.

"Why, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I'm really sick. I can't watch Davanee" she said.

"Alright. I'll be there in a couple of minutes" I said. I got John to cover for me when I went home. I came home to find Anya lying on the couch in her pajamas and Davanee playing in her room.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I dunno. I woke up this morning feeling really sick" she said.

"Ok, well, I gotta go back to work but I'll drop Davanee off with Dallas" I said.

"What about Maddie?" she asked.

"Maddie said she would be busy all this week" I said.

"Ok" said Anya.

I walked back to Davanee's room to find her playing with her blocks.

"Watcha doin'?" I asked.

"Building a city. You not work today?" she asked.

"Yeah, I have to go back in a little while. You are going to go hang out with Dallas and Bo today" I said.

"Yay!" shouted Davanee.

"Shhh…….Anya's not feeling good" I said.

"Ok" she whispered, "I be quiet."

We left after a couple of minutes, leaving Anya asleep on the couch. I dropped Davanee off with Dallas before I went back to work. When I got back to work, there was a huge crowd outside the theatre. I should have expected that on a Saturday.

"Where have you been? You left in the middle of one of the busiest days without even telling me" said Tim.

"I'm sorry. I had an emergency at home that I had to take care of" I said, walking behind the concession stand.

Tim just stared at me, like he was trying to decide whether or not he should do something.

"Don't let it happen again" he said after a while, "I'll let you off the hook this time but next time I won't be so understanding."

I just smiled and said "thanks." The rest of the day went by pretty fast. I ended up not having to work that night. Tim decided to give me the night off. I picked Davanee up before I went home that night.

"So what did you do with Dallas' and Bo?" I asked.

"Nothing. We saw Uncle Johnny at work" she said.

"I bet that was fun" I said.

"It was. Bo cry a lot" she said.

"That's what babies do. You cried a lot when you were a baby" I said.

"I did?"

"Yeah. I use to have to get up at 2 in the morning because you were crying" I said.

"That cwazy" she said.

I laughed and said "I know."

When we got home, I found Anya in the kitchen making dinner.

"I thought you said you were sick" I said, leaning against the doorway in the kitchen.

"I was but it was only this morning. I felt better this afternoon. I went to work for a couple of hours" she said.

"Well, I'm happy to hear that you're feeling better" I said.

"Besides. Neither one of us can afford to miss a whole day of work" she said.

"That's true" I said.

"What did Tim say when you went back to work?" she asked.

"He was mad but he left me off the hook. He said he wouldn't be so understanding next time" I said.

"That's good" said Anya, "dinner's almost ready, just a couple more minutes."

I said ok and started working on the homework for the weekend. I know it might sound sad that I was doing homework on a Friday night but I didn't have anything better to do. To be honest, I was ok with that.

I was in the middle of reading something for English when dinner was ready.

Dinner seemed really quiet with just 3 people. I was use to having at least 8 people over for dinner. I had grown accustomed to having the gang around for dinner almost every night. Maddie hardly ever joined us for dinner. She said that she would feel guilty if she made her dad eat by himself, but there were those rare occasions when she and Dillon would eat with us. As I thought about these things, I began to miss them. I hadn't realized how much I loved having so many people around all the time.

"Something wrong?" asked Anya.

I smiled and said "no. Just thinking."

"Ok" said Anya, smiling back.

"Watcha thinkin' about?" asked Davanee.

"Nothing, baby" I said.

Davanee just went back to her dinner. I was glad that she wasn't such a picky eater like a lot of kids. Davanee would eat anything if you asked her to except for tomatoes. For some odd reason, she wasn't a big fan of tomatoes.

We went to bed that night around 9. I was so tired, I fell right asleep.

I was awoken in the middle of the night by Davanee tugging at my arm.

"Baby, what's wrong?" I asked, still half asleep.

"They hurt me again" she said.

"Who?"

"The bad people. They left a mark" she said. I got out of bed and led Davanee to the kitchen so I could look at the mark. I didn't want to wake Anya up.

I lifted Davanee up and set her on the counter.

"Where'd they hurt you?" I asked.

"Here" she said, pulling up here sleeve. Sure enough, there was a bruise on her arm and it wasn't a little one.

"Oh my God" I said, taking a closer look at it. It was at that moment that I decided to find Davanee a phsyciatrist. I didn't care how ridiculous it sounded; I had to help her in some way. I let Davanee sleep in with Anya and I that night.

I was the first one up the next morning, so I made breakfast. I was almost done when I saw Anya standing in the doorway.

"Good morning" I said.

"Morning" she said. She didn't look so good. She looked a little green around the edges.

"You feelin' ok?" I asked but before she could answer, she ran to the bath room. I could hear her throwing up from where I was in the kitchen. She came back a couple of minutes later.

"Feel better?" I asked.

"A little bit. I think I'm gonna go to the doctor's today" she said.

"I think I might take Davanee to the doctors too" I said.

"Why? What's wrong with her?"

"She's been having these dreams lately. At first I didn't think anything of it because she's a kid. Kids have nightmares. Then she showed me this bruise she got last night. It's a pretty big bruise" I said.

"You think someone's hurting her?" she asked.

"I dunno. Who would want to hurt her?" I asked.

"Good point. Listen, I should get going if I want to go to the doctors today" she said, giving me a kiss. She left before Davanee woke up. I was almost done with breakfast when Davanee woke up.

"Hey, baby" I said, picking her up and being careful not to touch her bruise.

"Morning" she said.

"Are you hungry?" I asked.

She nodded her head yes. I sat her down at the breakfast table and made her some pancakes. She liked blueberries on her pancakes. I put them in the shape of a smiley face. She smiled when she saw the pancakes.

"I thought you might like that" I said.

When she was done with her breakfast, I helped her get dressed. As usual, I let her pick what she wanted to wear.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"I thought we might go surprise Anya at work today. She says there's a new girl who works that she wants us to meet" I said, tying Davanee's shoes.

"I like meeting new people" she said.

"I know you do. People like meeting you too" I said.

About an hour or so later, we started our walk to the DX. I let Anya take the car that day since I didn't really need it. Besides, I was use to walking everywhere.

We walked in to find Anya sitting behind the counter, reading a magazine. She didn't look too interested in the magazine. When we walked in, she looked up and smiled at us.

"I didn't know you where coming by today" she said, putting the magazine down.

"We thought it would be a nice surprise" I said. Just then, a girl walked in from the garage. She was short and had long, dirty blonde hair. She was covered in grease.

"Oh, Pony this is Ally. Ally this is Ponyboy" said Anya.

"Ponyboy?" asked Ally.

"You don't like my name?" I asked.

"No. I like it" she said, "I've heard about you. You're friends with Dallas Winston, aren't you?"

"Yeah. You know him?" I asked.

"Sort of" she said.

"Ally, you better get back to work. Randy will be here to pick up his car soon and he'll be mad if it's not ready" said Anya.

"I know, I know. Nice meeting you, Ponyboy" said Ally, walking back to the garage.

"She seems nice" I said.

"She is" said Anya.

"So, did you go to the doctors today?" I asked.

"I did. I went this morning before work" she said.

"What did she say?" I asked.

"Everything looks good" said Anya.

"But you've been sick every morning for the past week. How can everything be good?" I asked.

"Well, she said that was only a side effect" said Anya.

I began to get the feeling that she was holding something back, like she wanted to tell me but she didn't know how.

"Side effect of what?" I asked.

She didn't answer.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing, nothing. Everything's great. Um, I really don't know how to tell you this so I guess I'll just say it. I'm pregnant."

I felt my legs go weak and the ground rushed up to meet me.


	13. It's not fair

Chapter 13

When I came back around, I found myself lying on the floor in the DX with Anya sitting next to me.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You passed out" said Anya, handing me a bag full of ice, "you have a big bump on the back of your head." I sat up very slowly and immediately wished I hadn't. Everything was spinning.

"Where's Davanee?" I asked.

"She's in the garage with Ally" said Anya, "I figured you might be surprised about the news."

"Oh trust me" I said, "I'm far beyond surprised."

"Are you mad?"

"Mad? How can I be mad? I'm thrilled" I said.

Anya smiled and said "good. For a second there I thought you were mad."

"No. I couldn't be mad at you" I said.

"The doctor says I should probably go back in about a month or so" she said, helping me up. She handed me a Coke.

"This should help a little" she said.

"I can't believe it" I said, taking the Coke from her.

"Neither can I" she said.

"This has turned out to be a bigger day then what I thought it was going to be" I said.

"I know" she said, "I have to get back to work."

"I should probably go too. I promised Davanee I would take her to the park" I said.

"Alright. I'll let you go" said Anya, giving me a kiss.

"Bye, baby" I said, walking to the garage.

"I'll see you when I get home!" shouted Anya. I walked out of there in a daze with Davanee right by my side.

"Daddy, what's wrong?" asked Davanee.

"Nothing" I said.

"You fell. You got a bump" she said.

"I know" I said.

"Then what happen?" she asked.

I took a minute before I answered.

"Davanee, what would you think if you had a little brother or sister?"

"I want a little sister. I don't like boys. Boys are yucky" she said.

"So would you be disappointed if you had a brother?" I asked. Davanee thought about it for a minute.

"No" she said.

"Do you like the thought of having a little brother or sister?" I asked.

"Kinda" was all she said. I thought for sure she would say no. After all, she had been the only child for 2 years. Pretty soon we were at the park. As soon as we got there, I saw Johnny coming from the other direction. We had been talking for a little while (I was careful not to tell them about Anya) when I saw a blue Mustang circling the park.

"What do they want?" asked Johnny.

"I don't know" I said.

Before we could say anything else, about 5 socs got out of the car. The odds weren't in our favor this time. It had been a long time sense I'd gotten jumped or been in a rumble. Those kinds of things are ok to do when you're young and you've got nothing tying you down, but it's not ok when you've got a wife and kid.

"Well, well, well" said Bob, "looky what we got here. Hey Greasers!"

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Nothing, we just wanna have a little fun with you is all" said another. I looked down and noticed that Davanee was standing behind me, grabbing hold of my leg.

"Sweetie, go play" I said. She walked away without saying anything.

"Not so fast" said one of the socs as he picked her up.

"Put her down" I said in a low voice. The soc just stood there.

"I swear, if you don't put her down right now I'll…………."

"You'll what?" asked Bob.

"Leave her out of this" said Johnny, "she didn't do anything."

"No but we're gonna show her what happens to greasers" said Bob. I tried to walk towards Davanee but they had Johnny and I down within seconds. I didn't really care so much about them hurting me just as long they didn't hurt Davanee, but I could hear her screaming. I tried to get to her but one of the socs kicked me and knocked me down again. I wanted to fight back but I couldn't. I didn't want Davanee to see me fighting. I was just about to give up when I heard footsteps. I guess the socs heard them too because they left. The one that was holding Davanee stood there a couple of minutes before dropping her, and I mean literally dropping her, and running off to join his friends.

I looked up to find Darry, Dallas, and Two-Bit standing over us.

"You ok kid?" asked Dallas.

"Yeah" I got up and walked over to Davanee. She was still crying pretty hard. I picked her up and tried to calm her down but she wouldn't stop. They had scared her that bad. Finally, she started calming down a little. I decided that it was best we went home. She was still a little teary eyed.

"You ok, sweetie?" I asked once we got home. She didn't say anything.

"They didn't hurt you, did they?"

She shook her head no. I thought it best that maybe she had nap. I did my homework while I waited for Anya to come home that day. I really wasn't paying attention to whatever my homework was on. I didn't care. Normally, after a run in with the socs, I would've just forgotten about it. But this one was different. I didn't want Davanee to see those kinds of things and I certainly didn't want her to see me getting hurt. Hopefully she won't have to deal with the whole Soc, Greaser thing when she gets older. I was about finish with my homework when Anya came in. She looked tired.

"Rough day?" I asked.

"Yeah. Really rough day" she said, not looking up at me. She threw herself down on the couch and closed her eyes.

"How was your day?" she asked.

"I got jumped" I said.

"What!? When!?" she asked, sitting up and opening her eyes.

"When we were at the park" I said.

"Are you guys ok?" she asked.

"We'll be ok. They scared Davanee, but we'll be ok" I said.

"What'd they do to her?" she asked.

"Nothing. She just got to see the whole thing" I said.

"I'm sorry to hear that" she said.

There was a moment of silence between us. I started making dinner. It was my night. Anya and I had this whole thing planned out. I made dinner on Monday night, Wednesday night, Friday night, and Saturday night. She made dinner on Tuesday night, Thursday night, and Sunday night.

I was in the middle of making spaghetti when she said "it isn't fair."

"What's not fair?"

"You guys didn't do anything" she said.

"It's just the way things are. There's nothing we can do about it" I said. In my opinion, the only way to escape was to get out of Tulsa all together. When I was younger, I had always dreamed of moving as far away from Tulsa as possible but that all changed when Davanee came but I don't blame her for that. I blame myself. If I hadn't gone to the party that night, everything would be different for me. I would still be living in the old house with Darry, anxiously awaiting Soda's return.

I was just about done with dinner when I heard Davanee shuffling her feat down the hall.

"Daddy" said Davanee from the doorway.

"Hey baby" I said, picking her up.

"Daddy, can I watch Cinderella?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure" I said. I sat her down on the couch and turned Cinderella on for her.

The rest of the night was pretty quiet, unlike that day.


	14. runaway love

"Honey, what do you think of Annie?" asked Anya. We had both taken a Saturday off to unpack the rest of the boxes. Davanee was spending the whole day with Two-Bit so we could get some work done.

"As what?" I asked.

"As a baby name" said Anya.

"It's ok. Isn't it a little too early to be going through baby names?" I asked. It had been about a month since Anya told me she was pregnant.

"Well, yeah, but it doesn't hurt to talk about it now. What do you think about Baby as a name?" she asked. She was flipping through a book of baby names while I was doing all the work.

"Could you imagine being an adult and having the name Baby?" I asked.

"Good point" she said, she flipped a little further until she found another name she liked.

"What about Lucky?"

"It's ok. It would fit perfectly in this family" I said.

"The family of strange names" said Anya, laughing a bit.

"You callin' my name strange?" I asked, pretending to be offended.

"No, I'm calling my name strange. How many Anya's have you met?" she asked.

"Besides you, none" I said.

"Thought so" she said, "what about Claire?"

"That's nice" I said. She continued to go through the whole alphabet. I didn't really want to choose a name just yet. I finished unpacking the boxes and started getting ready to go. We were going over to the old house to have dinner with Darry. We hadn't told him about Anya yet. I was hopping that his reaction would be better than the last time. I showered and got dressed. Then I helped Davanee get ready (two-bit had dropped her off about an hour earlier). She seemed pretty excited about going back to the house. We hadn't been over there since we moved out and we hadn't spoken to Darry a whole lot since. With work and school and everything else, talking on the phone was considered a luxury.

We arrived at the house around 6. Darry wasn't home from work yet. He said he wouldn't be home till 7ish. Anya started dinner. I finished up what little homework I had and Davanee played on the floor with some toys she left there. It felt like we had never moved out.

Darry came home around 7:30.

"Sorry I'm late" said Darry.

"That's ok" I said.

"Uncle Darry!" Davanee ran and gave him a big hug.

"Hey, kiddo" said Darry. It had been awhile since Davanee had seen Darry. She claims that Darry was her second favorite uncle (I'll give you one guess who her favorite was).

"Uncle Darry, guess what" said Davanee.

"What?" asked Darry.

"I get to go to work with Daddy tomorrow" she said.

"Oh, lucky you" he said.

"Dinner is ready" said Anya.

Davanee helped me set the table. She liked to help me for some reason. She also liked to help me cook. Dinner was far from quiet that night. It was almost as if we still lived there. After dinner, Davanee went back to playing with her toys.

"Darry, we have something to tell you" I said, "promise you won't get mad like you did the last time."

"I can't promise that but I'll try" said Darry, taking his plate to the sink.

"I'm gonna have a baby" said Anya.

"That's wonderful" said Darry, a smile creeping across his face, "congratulations."

"Thanks" said Anya. That was easier then I thought it would be. For some reason, I thought we would have a replay of the night Davanee came to us. I know Darry said he was sorry for what he said but sometimes I wonder if he really did mean it.

Anya and Davanee left before I did that night. I told them I would walk home.

"It's quiet" I said.

"Yeah. It's been really quiet since you moved out. The gang hasn't been around lately" said Darry.

"Maybe we're growing apart" I said.

"You really think so?"

"Yeah, I kinda figured it would happen one day" I said.

"I think if Soda and Steve were here it would be different" said Darry.

"Yeah, probably" I said. I sat on the couch and watched TV while Darry read the newspaper.

"You know, I'm really happy about you and Anya" said Darry.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I dunno. I sort of thought you would respond the way you did when you found out about Davanee" I said.

"Well, that was different. You had her before you were married. This is somewhat different" said Darry, "but I don't know if you two will be able to handle two kids, especially one who is use to being the center of your attention" said Darry.

"I've been thinking about that. I think that in the end, she'll be ok. She told me that she's excited about having a brother or sister" I said.

"That's good. She should be. You know maybe you should write to Soda and tell him all about it" suggested Darry.

"I already did. We should be getting a letter soon" I said.

We talked for a little while longer until Darry offered to drive me home. He said that Socs were jumping Greaser more and more lately and he didn't want me walking home alone. When I got home, Davanee and Anya were already asleep. I crawled in bed beside Anya and fell asleep almost instantly. I expected to be woken up later that night but I wasn't. Davanee stayed in her bed all night. She hasn't had a bad dream in almost a week. I was hoping that they would just go away and I wouldn't have to take her to the doctors.

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of "zip-a-dee-doo-da." I walked out to the living room to find Davanee watching that old Disney movie _Song of the South_. I remember watching that movie a least a thousand times when I was little. It use to be one of my favorites.

"Davanee, where's Anya?" I asked.

"She's in the shower" said Davanee.

"Did she turn the movie on for you?" I asked.

"No. I do that all myself" she said. For a 2 year old, she was pretty smart.

Davanee started singing along to one of the songs. Even though she was 2, I could tell she was going to be a singer when she gets older. She was always singing. For the most part, she sang Elvis songs and songs from Disney movies. I found it sort of funny that she could sing and I can't sing at all. She must have gotten the singing jean from her mother.

"Daddy, look" she said, pointing to the TV, "They no catch Br'er Rabbit."

"Wow. He must be a sneaky rabbit" I said, acting as if I had never seen the movie before.

"He is" she said, going back to the movie. Just then, Anya stepped out of the shower. She got dressed and joined me in the kitchen.

"Morning baby" she said, giving me a kiss.

"Morning" I said, "how ya feeling this morning?"

"Pretty good. I'm not sick this morning" she said, sitting down at the kitchen table.

"That's good" I said.

"But I don't feel like going to school today or work" she said, her head in her hands.

"Baby, you know you can't afford to miss a day of work or school" I said, "I'm sorry but you have to go."

"But I don't want to" she said.

"But you have to. Come on, Davanee and I will drop you off" I said. Anya just stared at me. She thought about for a little while before saying "ok. I'll go."

After about an hour or so, Davanee and I dropped Anya off at school. She was late but the school didn't care. They were never that strict on being late. Davanee and I stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home. Once we got home, I was a bit surprised to see a letter sitting in the mail box. That letter could only be from one person, Soda.

The letter said:

_Pony,_

_I'm glad to hear that everything is going great for you and Anya and I'm especially glad to hear about the new baby. If I'm lucky, I might be home before it's born. I doubt that I will but it's always a possibility. Things aren't going so good over here. Steve got sent to a new camp a couple of weeks ago. I haven't seen or heard from him sense. I'm real worried about him. What if something bad happened to him? I know you tow don't get along but if you do hear anything about him, tell me. I want to know._

_Your brother,_

_Soda._

I was kinda upset that the whole letter was about Steve but for soda's sake, I promised I would tell him if I heard anything about Steve. The rest of the day and that night were pretty quiet, but the next day wasn't. I was getting ready to take Davanee down to the DX when I got a call from Steve's mother. I was sort of surprised to get a call from her because she didn't like me very much. I was also surprised to hear that Steve was coming home.

"Hey Davanee, guess what" I said.

"What?" asked Davanee.

"Uncle Steve is coming home" I said.

"When?"

"Tomorrow."

"Yay!" shouted Davanee.

"Come on, let's go tell Anya" I said. Davanee had to go and tell everybody else. They all seemed equally excited.

"I wonder what's going to happen to Ally" said Anya.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Ally took Steve's job. I wonder what's going to happen when he comes back" she said.

"So she'll get a new job. It's not that big of a deal" I said.

"I don't think she can" said Anya.

"What makes you say that?"

Anya looked around for a minute, checking to see if there was anybody within hearing distance.

"I think she's a runaway" said Anya.

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"She never goes home. She doesn't shower. She wears the same clothes everyday. She doesn't even brush her hair" she said.

"Maybe you should try to talk to her, get to the bottom of this" I suggested.

"I don't know. I don't know her very well" she said.

"You didn't know me very well when we were sitting in that doctors office but you talked to me anyways" I said.

"Good point" she said, "Listen, I should probably get back to work. I'll see you guys later."

"Ok. Bye" I said, giving her a kiss goodbye. I didn't have to go to school that night so I didn't have to my homework. For once in a long time, I got to spend more than an hour with Davanee. Lately I had been so busy I didn't have a lot of time to spend with her but that night it was just to two of us. We spent the night playing with her toys. Once we had played with all the toys and eaten dinner, I put Davanee to bed.

"Daddy, where the new baby gonna sleep?" she asked as I tucked her in.

"In our room" I said.

"What's its name?" she asked.

"I don't know. We haven't picked one yet" I said.

"You can call it Mickey Mouse" she said

I laughed and said, "I'll talk to Anya about it but for now it's time for you to go to bed."

"Daddy, stay here" she said.

"Why?"

"Protect me from the bad people" she said. I was hoping she wouldn't say that. She hadn't had any bad dreams in weeks. I thought she was doing pretty well until that moment.

I forced a smile and said "ok." I laid down next to her in her bed. She snuggled up under my arm and fell asleep. I could feel tears coming to my eyes. The thought of her getting hurt and me powerless to stop it was unbearable. I was about to fall asleep too when I heard Anya come home. I slowly got up and shut the door behind me.

"Hey" I said.

"Hey" she said.  
"How was work?" I asked.

"It was ok" she said.

"I think I'm gonna go for a walk" I said.

"But it's late" said Anya.

"I know. I won't be long, I promise" I said.

"Alright" she said. I grabbed my shoes and left. I wasn't really sure where I was going. I walked for what seemed like ages until I passed the old house. All the lights were out so I figured Darry was asleep. He wouldn't like it if I woke him up so I just continued walking. I walked to the park. I was about to sit down under the tree when I noticed someone lying down. At first I thought it was Johnny but then I noticed the blond hair. I walked a little closer and whoever it was was awoken by the sound of my footsteps.

"Who's there?" they asked. It was a girl.

"I should be asking you the same thing" I said.

"What do you want?" asked the girl. The voice sounded familiar. It took me a minute to realize that it was Ally from the station.

"Ally?" I asked.

"How do you know me?" she asked.

"It's Ponyboy. We met at the DX a little while ago" I said.

"Oh, sorry. I thought you were someone else. What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I was taking a walk" I said, sitting down next to her under the tree, "what are you doing here?"

There was a silence. Ally just looked the other way, almost as if something had caught her attention.

"Ally, what are you doing here?" I asked again.

"I ran away" she said softly, "my parents just got divorced and I couldn't take it. I had to get away."

"Ally, you can't stay out here. It's too dangerous" I said.

"I know" she said.

"You can come and stay with us for tonight" I offered.

"You'd let me do that?" she asked.

"Yeah. I'm sure Anya wouldn't mind" I said.

"Thanks, Pony" she said, "you know you're really nice. I like you."

"I'm taken" I said.

"I didn't mean it like that. I meant I like you as a friend" she said.

"I knew what you meant. I was just giving you a hard time" I said, getting up. I helped Ally up.

"Let's go back to the apartment" I said.

"Ok" said Ally, "it'll be good to sleep someplace warm tonight."

"I bet" I said. The rest of the walk was spent talking about how Ally got to Tulsa. It turns out that she use to live in Texas. Once her parents separated, she hitchhiked her way here. She'd been staying at different places every night or so sense she got here. She said she even stayed at Buck's place one night.

We a couple of minutes away from the apartment when I remembered she said that she knew Dallas.

"How do you know Dallas?" I asked.

"I met him a Buck's a couple of weeks ago. He said that a kid like me shouldn't be staying there and he offered to let me stay with him but I turned him down. I thought I was making a pretty good decision sense I had a pretty good thing going on at Buck's. Buck kicked me out the next day and left me to fend for myself" she explained.

"Well that's Buck for you. He's not too fond of kids. But I'm shocked to hear this about Dallas. He's normally not that nice to kids, even though he has one of his own" I said.

"Really? I didn't know he had a kid" said Ally.

"Yeah. Her name is Bo. She's only a year old" I said.

A couple of minutes later we arrived at the apartment. We walked in to find Anya watching TV.

"You go out for a walk and you bring back runaway" snapped Anya.

"No need to snap, baby. Ally is going to stay with us tonight" I said.

"Great" said Anya, getting up and rolling her eyes. She walked to our room and shut the door.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what's gotten into her" I said, "I'll get you a blanket and some towels. The bathroom is right there if you wanna take a shower."

"Thanks Pony" said Ally. Ally was in the shower before I could bring the towels and blanket back. I convinced Anya to let Ally borrow some of her clothes.

"Ally, there's some clothes and a towel sitting on the sink for you" I called.

"Thanks" she said from the shower. I walked back into my room to see Anya sitting on the bed with her arms folded across her chest.

"What's gotten into you tonight? You were fine when I left" I said.

"I dunno. Being pregnant sucks" she said.

"Oh, come on. It can't be that bad. It'll be over before you know it" I said.

"Yeah and then we'll have to deal with 2 am feedings and changing diapers" she said.

"Ok, the changing diapers thing is bad but the 2 am feedings aren't. Trust me. I've been there before" I said.

Anya smiled and said "I trust you." We went to bed on a good note that night. My mom always taught me not to go to bed angry. While I was lying in bed, I thought about my parents. I wondered what they would think if they could see me now; married with a kid. I know they wouldn't approve of it but they'd get use to it. They'd love Davanee and Anya.


	15. In good hands

We waited for what seemed like forever for Steve to get off the plane. There were a lot of other families there waiting for other soldiers. I was kinda happy that Steve was coming home. I know we didn't get along but things wouldn't be right without him.

After awhile, I finally saw Steve step off the plane. He looked different. His hair was shorter and he wasn't as pale. It took him a minute to find us.

"Uncle Steve!" shouted Davanee, running up to him and giving him a hug. He bent down and picked her up.

"Hey, kiddo" he said.

"I missed you" she said.

"Missed you too" he said.

"You gotta see da apartment. It's perddy" she said.

"Ok. I'll come and see it later. That is if your Daddy will let me" he said.

"It's ok with me" I said walking up to them.

"Hey, kid" he said.

"Hey Steve" I said, "how ya doin'?"

"Pretty good. Glad to be home" he said.

"You must be" I said, " a lot's changed since you left."

"So I've heard. What's this I hear about you and Anya expecting a baby?" he asked.

"Yeah, sometime next April I think" I said.

"That good" he said.

"Something's different about you" I said.

"Why do you say that?" he asked as we started walking towards the truck.

"We're actually talking. We never do that. We argue" I said.

"Like you said, a lot's changed since I left" he said. I helped him load his stuff into the back of the truck.

"This your truck?" he asked.

"Yeah. Anya parents gave it to us as a wedding present" I said, pulling out of the parking lot.

"So do you have a place to stay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I got my old house. My parents moved out of there a little while ago and into a smaller house" he said. I wondered how small it was because Steve's house was pretty small. I dropped Steve off at his old house. I told him we would be back by later.

We went about the other errands we had to run that day and went back to Steve's around 3.

"What do you want to do?" he asked.

"Are up for stopping by the DX?" I asked.

"Yeah, I guess I could do that" he said.

"Just so you know, there is a new girl working there" I said.

"She took my place, didn't she?"

"Yeah but I think you'll like her. She's nice" I said.

We drove to the DX to find that it was packed but then again, it was a Monday. Mondays were one of the busiest times. We had to wait a little while to talk to Anya and Ally. Anya gave Steve a hug once she had the time.

"It's good to have you back" she said.

"It's good to be back" he said, letting her go. Just then, Ally came walking in from the garage.

"Who's this?" asked Ally.

"Ally this is Steve. Steve this is Ally" said Anya. Neither of them said anything. They just stared at each other. After awhile, Ally turned and went back to the garage.

"I'm gonna go to the garage" said Steve, "Have a look around."

"I gotta get to work" I said.

"I thought you didn't have to work today" said Anya.

"Tim called this morning. He said he needed me to come in tonight. Steve said he would take Davanee until you get off" I said.

"Alright but try to get home early" she said.

"I will" I said, giving her a kiss. I walked to work. The movie theatre was packed that night but Tim let me go home early. I came home to find Anya, Steve, and Ally on the couch.

"Hey, baby" said Anya, giving me a kiss.

"Hey" I said.

"How was work?" she asked.

"Hectic. How was your work?" I asked.

"Boring as usual. I went to the doctors today."

"You didn't tell me you had a doctor's appointment" I said.

"I'm sorry it must have slipped my mind" she said.

"What did the doctor say?"

"She said everything looks good" said Anya.

"That's good" I said, joining everyone in the living room. We stayed up for another hour or so until Steven and Ally decided to go home. It turns out that Steve had offered to let Ally stay with him for as long as she needed. It seems like those two went together almost instantly.

"They seem to like each other" said Anya as we were getting ready for bed.

"Yeah. They kinda acted like brother and sister" I said.

"You think Steve's been keeping a secret from us all these years?" she asked.

"No. Steve would've told us if he had a sister, besides, he's lived here all his life. Ally is from Texas" I said.

"How do you know?"

"She told me that night I went for a walk. You were right about her being a runaway. She said she ran away because her parents got divorced" I said.

"That's sad. That's really sad" she said, climbing into bed.

"It's better than having no parents" I said.

"True" said Anya. We left the conversation at that. I really didn't feel like talking about my parents. Even though it had been a couple of years since the accident, it still hurt to talk about it.

I woke up that night around 2. I tried to fall back asleep but I couldn't so I decided to get up and walk around a little. I use to do that when I was younger. Whenever I couldn't sleep, I would get up and walk around the house until I felt tired again. I walked around the apartment a couple of times before heading back to bed. As I started walking down the hall, I noticed that Davanee's door was open slightly. I opened the door quietly to check on her. She was sound asleep. I stood there for a moment and watched her sleep. It had been a while since I'd done that. I was about to go back to my room when I heard her move.

"Daddy?" she whispered.

"Hey, sweetie" I said quietly.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Nothing just checking on you" I said, "go back to sleep."

"I can't" she said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"I'm scared" she said.

"Another bad dream?" I asked. She nodded her head yes.

"Baby, those people aren't real. They can't hurt you" I said.

"Yes dey can" she said.

"No they can't. Trust me" I said.

"You stay with me?" she asked.

I sighed and said "yeah, I'll stay with you."

I crawled into bed next to her and she fell back asleep almost instantly. Unfortunately, I didn't. I didn't get much sleep that night. I fell back asleep around 3:30 only to wake up again at 6.

That day went by pretty slowly. I was expecting to get a letter from Soda but I didn't. I told him about Steve coming home and about Davanee's bad dreams in the last letter.

Weeks passed and still no word from Soda. I was starting to get worried. What if something bad had happened to him? What if he had been killed and they haven't told us yet? I was hoping that he had written us and the letters had just gotten lost in the mail or something like that. I was about to give up all hope until one day when I found one lonely letter sitting in the back of the mailbox. I was expecting this letter to be like all the others but it wasn't.

_Pony,_

_I am sad to say that things have gotten much worse over here. People are getting killed left and right. Yesterday, Danny got shot and killed. He was only 18. It's not fair. He was just a kid! I was there when he died. I watched him die! I felt terrible because there was nothing I could do. He told me to write to his mom and tell her what happened. I'll never forget those big blue eyes looking up at me when he died. He looked so innocent. Why do innocent people like him have to die? I wish there was something I could do but I know there isn't. I can't stop the government from sending kids over here. I pray that you won't have to. Unlike some of us, you have people who depend on you. I'm scared, Pony. I'm scared that I'll never see you guys again. I'm scared that I'll never get to see that new baby. Well, I'm sorry to make this so short but I have to go now. You may not hear from me for a little while._

_Your brother,_

_Soda_

I wanted to cry when I read his letter but I didn't. I couldn't stand to hear someone like Soda talk like that. He never talked like that. He was happy almost all the time.

"Is that from Uncle Soda?" asked Davanee.

"Yeah."

"You read it to me?" she asked.

"Not right now, sweetie. Why don't you go play?" I suggested.

"Ok" said Davanee. She went to her room to play with her toys. I put Soda's letter away. I'd show it to Anya when she got home. I started making dinner while I was waiting for Anya even though it wasn't my night to cook. I figured she wouldn't mind if I gave her the night off. I was almost done when I heard the front door slam.

"Rough day?" I asked.

"You'll never guess what happened" she said.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I have to go to a different school. It's a special school for pregnant girls. The school said that, considering the circumstances, they would pay the tuition" she said.

"Well, that doesn't sound too bad. When do you start?" I asked.

"Tomorrow. Switching schools isn't really the bad part, it's the location" she said.

"Where is it?" I asked.

"Right in the heart of Soc territory" she said.

"You can't get out of it?"

"No. The school said I have no choice. What am I gonna do? I can't go to school over there. I'll get jumped or something. I mean, normally I wouldn't be afraid of that but"

"You're pregnant and they could hurt the baby" I said, interrupting.

"Exactly and it won't do any good to explain the whole greaser, soc thing to the school because to adults, it doesn't exist unless you're a cop" she said. I had never thought about that before. Adults really didn't know what was going on between us. They didn't know about us getting jumped. They didn't know about all the torment at school and they certainly didn't know about the occasional rumbles.

"You'll be ok" I said, "You can take the truck."

"Well that's ok for now but what happens when I get too big to fit behind the wheel?" she asked.

"Then I'll take you. It's not that big of a deal for me to drive you" I said.

"Really? You wouldn't mind?" she asked.

"Of course not but we don't have to worry about that now" I said.

"Would you come with me tomorrow?" she asked.

"Of course I will. I wouldn't let you go all by yourself on the first day" I said.

She smiled and said "thanks."

Dinner was noisy that night as usual. We had Ally and Steve join us. To my surprise, Steve's attitude had changed for the better while he was away. Sure he was still a little bitter but not as much as he used to be. He smiled more than he frowned and we talked more than we argued.

I found it rather easy to sleep that night. I had a long day and I was too tired to think about anything before I went to bed. I was awoken the next morning by the alarm clock going off in my ear. Anya had to be at the new school by 8:30.

I was the first one up so I made breakfast. I was almost done when I noticed Davanee standing in the doorway, holding her teddy bear and rubbing her eyes.

"Hey, baby" I said, picking her up, "you sleep well?" She nodded her head yes.

"No bad dreams?" I asked. She shook her head no.

I set her down at the table and put a plate of eggs in front of her. I set another place for Anya for when she got out of the shower. She was out just as soon as I finished setting the place.

"Good morning" I said.

"Morning" she said.

"Nervous?" I asked.

"Very nervous. I haven't been to a new school in a long time" said Anya, sitting down at the table.

"You'll be fine" I said, "it's pretty hard for people not to like you." She smiled when I said that. We left about 30 minutes later. It took us about an hour to find the school. Anya wasn't kidding when she said it was in the middle of soc territory. There were Socs every where. They stared at us and our truck.

"Why are they looking at us?" asked Davanee.

"I don't know, baby" said Anya. Pretty soon, we pulled into the parking lot of the school. This school was bigger than the old one. The campus, from what I could see, was crawling with greasy girls. There were a couple of soc girls but not a lot. The greaser girls out numbered the socs girls by a lot. We walked with Anya inside to the front office. People didn't really seem to notice us but when they did they just smiled. Once Anya had filled out of the new student forms, Davanee and I left. I gave Anya a kiss goodbye before we left.

AN YA'S POV

I was scared out of my mind. I stood there and watched as Pony and Davanee walked down the hallway to the exit. Pretty soon I was alone in that huge school. I took a look at my schedule and found my first class. I had biology. I wasn't that bad at biology but it wasn't one of my favorite subjects. I was more of an English person.

I sat down in the back of the room by myself. I figured that if I stayed low, no one would notice. Unfortunately, I got stuck in a class that had a girl who loved to make friends with people who just wanted to be alone.

The girl sat down next to me and smiled.

"Hi" she said in an unusually cheerful voice.

"Hi" I said.

"You're new here, aren't you?" she asked.

"Yeah" I said.

"I'm Sarah. I'm still sort of new here too. What's your name?"

"Anya" I said.

"Wow, that's a pretty name" she said.

"Thanks" I said. I was going to add something but the class started. I normally didn't talk during class. The first couple of classes went by pretty fast. After 5th period was lunch, the hour I was dreading. Normally I would be looking forward to lunch, but when you're at a new school and you have no one to sit with, it's something you dread. I was about to go sit by myself when I saw Sarah waving me over to her table. I sighed and walked over there.

"Sit with us" she said.

I took a seat between her and another girl. There two other girls sitting at the table. They all looked farther along then me. I was skinny compared to them.

"Guys, this is Anya. Anya this is Liz, Katie, and Holly" said Sarah, guestering to each girl when she said there name. For the most part, I just listened to the conversation. It was mostly about babies and due dates and stuff like that. I wanted to say something but I couldn't. I don't really know anything about that kind of stuff. At that point, I was still relatively new to being pregnant.

"So what are you having?" asked one girl. I think her name was Katie.

"I don't know" I said.

"Well, what do you want?" she asked.

"A girl but I'd be ok with a boy" I said, even though I was really hoping for a girl.

"What names have you picked out?" asked Sarah.

"None yet. We've talked about them but we haven't found any that we really like" I said.

"Now when you say 'we' do you mean you and your parents or you and your boyfriend?" asked Katie.

"Neither actually. I mean me and my husband" I said.

"Oh, so your boyfriend and you got married because of the baby?" asked Katie.

"No. We got married before the baby" I said.

"How old are you?" asked Holly.

"16" I said.

"Wow. That's young. Your parents were ok with that?" asked Holly.

"Yeah, totally. My parents love him" I said.

"You're lucky. My parents can't stand my boyfriend. They said they don't want me to see him again" said Holly. That statement was followed by a chorus of "me too." I guess I never really thought of myself as lucky.

The rest of the day went by pretty fast. I thought my first day at my new school was going to be terrible but it turned out to be pretty good. I waited outside with Sarah.

"Who's picking you up?" I asked.

"My mom but it'll be a little while before she gets here. She gets off of work at 3:30 and its only 3" she said.

"Yeah, I gotta go to work after this" I said.

"You still work?" asked Sarah.

"Yeah. I don't really have a choice. I work down at the DX" I said.

"Oh, I've been there a couple of times. I used to know the boys that worked there, Soda and Steve. How come I haven't seen them lately?" she asked. That statement made me wonder a little. This girl looked to be in the middle class. What was she doing over in greaser territory?

"They got drafted a couple of weeks ago" I said.

"Oh. My boyfriend got drafted a couple of weeks ago. We got a letter from him yesterday. He says that he and Soda are in the same camp. I'm worried about him. What if something bad happens to him?" she asked.

"He'll be ok. If he's with Soda, he's in good hands."


	16. Michelangelo

PONY'S POV

When I picked Anya up from school, she looked exhausted.

"Long day?" I asked once she got in the car.

"No, just tired" she said. The rest of the car ride was pretty quiet. I guess Anya was too tired to talk. Once we got home, she went right to bed. I decided to let her sleep. I would take care of dinner that night. I was almost done when she woke up.

"Hey" I said, giving her kiss.

"Hey" she said.

"What's the matter?"

"I'm hungry."

"Dinner is almost ready" I said. She took one look at the spaghetti and said "I don't want it."

"Then what do you want?" I asked.

She hesitated before she answered.

"I can't really get it for you if you don't tell me" I said.

"Chocolate" she said.

"You hate chocolate."

"Since when?"

"I don't know since forever" I said.

"Yeah but now I like it" she said.

"We don't have any chocolate anyways" I said. Anya gave me the puppy dog pout when I said.

"Don't give me that look. I'm not running down to the store this late" I said.

"Please" she said.

"No."

"But I love you. Baby, please" she begged.

I sighed and said "fine. I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

"Thank you baby" she said giving me a kiss.

"What kind of chocolate do you want?" I asked.

"Hershey's. No nuts" she said.

"Hershey's, no nuts. Got it" I said. I grabbed the car keys off the kitchen counter and left. I drove to the DX since that was the nearest place that had chocolate. I was so glad Anya didn't have to work the graveyard shift. From what I hear, a lot of bad things happen. Soda had to work the graveyard shift once and he got jumped.

I was back at the apartment within 20 minutes.

"Thank you, baby" said Anya, giving me another kiss as I handed her the chocolate.

"Happy now?" I asked.

"Yes I am" she said, smiling. The rest of the night was pretty quiet. I had to get to bed early that night if I wanted to be at the doctor's office on time the next day. Davanee was getting her cast off and she had a appointment with a psychiatrist. I still feel terrible about her wrist.

It was about 3 when Davanee came in with her teddy bear. She was crying this time. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get her to go back to her room. So, I let her sleep between Anya and I. 'This has got to stop' I thought, 'I'm taking her to a doctor tomorrow.' And I did. The doctor turned about to be pretty nice. Her name was Dr. Carson and she specialized in child psychology. She was in her 50s maybe and she said she had been doing this for a long time so I trusted her.

I waited outside in the waiting room for what seemed like forever. Finally, Davanee came skipping out of there.

I was about to say something but Dr. Carson cut me off. She said "we don't know anything yet. Bring her back in one month and we'll probably be able to diagnose her after that."

"That's it?"

"Well this was just like a get to know you meeting. Like an evaluation meeting" explained Dr.Carson.

"Do you have any idea as to what is causing all these dreams?" I asked.

"I do but it's a little too soon to tell. We'll have to have a few more meetings and run a couple of test" she said.

"Test? What kind of test?" I asked but she had another patient she had to attend to. She didn't get a chance to answer my question.

"Am I sick?" asked Davanee.

"No, of course not" I said.

"Then why I go to doctor?" she asked.

"We just need to know why you're having all these bad dreams" I said.

"They scare me" she said.

"The doctors?" I asked.

"No. Da dreams. Dey hurt me" she said.

"I know they do. That's why you're going to the doctors so they can't hurt you anymore" I said.

"Oh" said Davanee, as if she understood what I was talking about. There was a silence in the car. I was thinking about what was going to happen in the doctor's appointments to come. 'Could Davanee really be sick?' I thought to myself. I dismissed the thought almost immediately. There's no way she could be sick.

"Daddy?" asked Davanee, breaking the silence.

"Yeah?"

"Where do babies come from?"

"What?"

"Where babies come from?" she asked again.

I sort of laughed and said "you're too young to know. I'll tell you when you're older."

"It bad?" she asked.

"No, it's just something you don't need to know about yet" I said.

"Ok" said Davanee. When we got home, I let Davanee paint in the kitchen while I finished up my homework. I was in the middle of studying for a history test when Anya came home.

"How was your day?" I asked.

"Fine. We had a lot of customers at the DX today" she said.

"You make it sound like that's a bad thing" I said.

"Well, it is when you're really tired and your feet hurt" she said.

"Here" I said, "I'll rub you're feet."

Anya smiled and laid down on the couch while I started rubbing.

"So, how was school?" I asked.

"It was ok but I don't think those girls know how to shut up. That's all they ever do is talk and god forbid it should be about something other than babies" she said.

"But you do like them don't you?" I asked.

"What babies?" she asked.

"No. I meant those girls" I said.

"Yeah, I guess. They seem nice" she said, "Sarah said that she knows Soda."

"How does she know him?"

"She said that she use to go by the DX a lot before I came. She and Soda talked a couple of times. She said that he told her about Sandy but I don't know if he went into full detail. You know her boyfriend and Soda are in the same camp in Vietnam" she said.

"Daddy, come look!" yelled Davanee from the kitchen.

I walked into the kitchen to find that there was more paint on the table, floor, walls, and everything else than the paper.

"It perddy" she said.

"Oh yeah, it's very pretty. I bet it'll look even better when we get all the paint of the floor" I said.

"I make 'nother picture?" asked Davanee.

"Nope. It's bath time now" I said.

"But I not dirty" said Davanee, holding up her arms that were covered in paint.

"Oh yes you are" I said, carrying her to the bathroom.

"I in trouble?" she asked.

"Oh yeah" I said, "after your bath, you're gonna go sit in time out" I said. Davanee just looked down and frowned. I gave her a bath and made her sit in time out for a little while. She fought me of course but after awhile, she gave up.

"What happened?" asked Anya.

"Our little Michelangelo here decided to paint the kitchen" I said.

"You need help cleaning up?" she asked.

"No. I got it. You've been on your feet all day so you just stay here" I said. Anya smiled at me at sat back down on the couch. It took me about an hour to clean all the paint off of everything. Once I was done with the kitchen, I found that Anya and Davanee had both fallen asleep on the couch. I carried Davanee to her room and threw a blanket over Anya. For once, the place was actually quiet.


	17. Nightmare disorder

I took Davanee back to the doctors a couple of weeks later. Dr. Carson spoke to Davanee before she talked to me. About 30 minutes or so later, the doctor called me in. Her office was pretty nice. It had a bunch of toys in the corner and a desk and chairs in the other. I took a seat in one of the chairs while Dr. Carson sat down behind her desk.

"Mr. Curtis" she began, "after several hours of going over your daughters files, her descriptions of the dreams and your description of her after the dreams, we've diagnosed her with nightmare disorder. It's a disorder where someone has nightmares frequently and they can remember them in the morning. Often times this nightmares can seem very threatening to the person" she said.

"What's the treatment?" I asked.

"Unfortunately, there is no treatment. We could prescribe medicine that would ease the dreams but that's about it. My best advice is to comfort her when she does have a nightmare. If this continues for awhile then I would suggest therapy" she said.

"That's it? That's all we can do?" I asked.

"I'm sorry. If you have any questions or concerns don't hesitate to call" she said.

"Thanks" I said, getting up. I sort of walked down the hall in a daze. I couldn't help but think about what was causing these dreams. At first I thought it was me getting married but then I remembered that she started having the dreams long before that.

"Daddy, what's wrong?" asked Davanee.

"Nothing, baby" I said as I strapped her into her car seat.

"You look sad" she said.

"It's nothing sweetie" I said. Instead of going home like I had planned on, we went by the DX. The place was crawling with customers so we had to wait a little while. Once everyone had cleared out, Davanee ran to join Ally in the garage while I talked to Anya.

"So what did the doctor say?" she asked.

"Davanee has something called Nightmare Disorder. It's this thing where she has nightmares and she wakes up screaming and everything" I said.

"But that doesn't explain the bruises" said Anya.

"I know. Maybe Davanee hurt herself and she just didn't realize it until then" I said.

"Maybe" said Anya.

"So how has your day been so far?" I asked.

"Fine. I saw Maddie today" she said.

"Really? When?" I asked. It had been forever since I'd heard from Maddie.

"About an hour ago. She was here with Dillon. She doesn't look too good. She looks like she's sick or something. I wanted to say something but there were a lot of people around and I didn't want to cause a big scene" she said, "maybe you should talk to her, find out what's going on."

"I dunno. I don't really see her anymore. We haven't spoken since the wedding."

"That doesn't mean that she won't listen to you. Please talk to her" begged Anya.

"Alright, I'll try but I can't guarantee anything" I said. Just as I said that, Ally and Davanee walked in. Ally looked different. She was actually clean for once and she was smiling.

"This can't be the same girl I picked up in the park that night" I said, taking a look at her.

"It's me" said Ally.

"You know I think you've probably benefited somewhat from living with Steve" I said.

"He's become like a big brother to me. He got me to call my parents and tell them were I was. We talked things out" she said.  
"That's good to hear. What are they gonna do?" I asked.

"They said I could come home when I was ready. I don't think I'm ready yet" she said.

"No, we don't want you to leave just yet" said Anya.

"I think Steve likes having me around" she said, "He says he would be pretty lonely in that house all by himself."

"I'm sure he would" I said.

"Well, I should probably get back to work before I get in trouble" said Ally.

"Alright. See ya later" I said.

"Yeah, I gotta get back to work too. I won't be home till late tonight" she said.

"Ok. I don't have school tonight so that works out perfectly" I said.

"Bye" she said, giving me a kiss goodbye.

Davanee and I went to the park after the DX. I was kind of surprised to see Maddie and Dillon there. They never went to the park. I let Davanee go play with Dillon while I talked to Maddie.

"Hey" I said, approaching Maddie.

"Hey. Haven't seen you in awhile" she said.

"Since the wedding" I said.

"How are things going between you and Anya?"

"Pretty good."

"She told me she was going to have a baby. You must be happy."

"I am. I'm really happy" I said.

"That's good. I'm happy for you" she said. Maddie looked sad that day. Normally she was really happy and always smiling.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing. What makes you think something is wrong?" she asked.

"I dunno. You seem pretty sad. Did something happen between you and Joey?"

Maddie just looked down at her feet.

"What happened?" I asked.

"He hit me" she said just above a whisper.

"He did what?"

"He hit me but it was just once. I know he didn't mean to" she said.

"Right" I said.

"He really didn't. It was my fault. You see what happened was he was taking care of Dillon for a whole day. I was supposed to pick Dillon up at 4 but I was there at 5. It was my fault" she said.

"He still shouldn't have hit you just for that" I said.

"It's ok now. I broke up with him about a week ago" she said.

"Have you seen him since?"

"Yeah, he's been begging me to take him back. I don't think I should" she said.

"Don't take him back. If he hits you it's not worth it. I'm sure you can find someone who's better than that" I said.

She smiled and said "you're probably right. We better go; we've still got some stuff to do." Maddie and Dillon walked away before I could say anything.

"Daddy, I sleepy" said Davanee.

"Come on, let's go home" I said.

"Daddy?" asked Davanee.

"Yeah?"

"When I go back to doctors?" she asked.

"I don't know, baby. Why?"

"I wike her. She got good toys" she said.

"Oh yeah, what kind of toys does she have?"

"She gots army men and coloring books but she no have Barbie" she said.

"I thought you didn't like Barbie" I said.

"No, I wike her now" she said when we got in the car.

"So does that mean I have to buy you more Barbies now?" I asked.

"No" she said.

When we got home, I found a letter in the mail box from Soda. It had been a little while since we had heard from him

_Pony,_

_I'm happy to report that things are going a little bit better over here. I'm glad to hear that Steve got to go home .Things are going so much better over here. Who knows? Maybe the war is finally coming to an end. Well, I'm sorry to make this one so short but I have to go now. _

_Your brother_

_Soda_

_P.S I almost forgot to tell you, I'm coming home_


	18. The gangs' all here

We waited for what seemed like forever for Soda to get off the plane. I watched as all the other soldiers slowly stepped of the plane. The sad part about this experience was watching some of them being carried off the plane in wooden boxes.

"Daddy, what are those?" asked Davanee, pointing to the coffins.

"Boxes, sweetie" i said.

"What they for?"

"They use them to carry the soldiers stuff" i said.

"Oh" was all she said in return.

Soda was the last on to come off hte plane. He looked a lot different. His hair was longer than what i remembered and his was thinner. He scanned the crowd a couple of times before he found us.

"Uncle Soda!" cried Davanee., running towards him. Soda dropped everything and picked Davanee up. He gave her a big kiss on the cheek.

"I missed you so much" she said.

"I missed you even more" said Soda, giving her another kiss.

"You're not leaving again, are you?" she asked.

"Of course not. I would never leave you again" said Soda, putting her down. Once he put Davanee down, he got a chance to hug everyone else.I was the last person he got to see.

"Ponyboy" he said.

"I missed you" i said, giving him a big hug.I could feel the tears coming to my eyes. We finally pulled apart after a couple of minutes.

"You look different" he said, taking a good look at me.

"So do you" i said.

"Come on, let's go home" said Darry.

Before we went to the house, we showed Soda the appartment.

"It isn't much" i said, "but it's enough for us."

"It's nice" said Soda.

"Uncle Soda, come see my room" said Davanee, pulling Soda down the small hallway.

"Wow, this is pretty" said Soda once he saw the room. It wasn't much. We didn't even have it painted yet. Once Davanee was done showing Soda every corner of the room, we went over to the house.

"It looks just like I remember" said Soda.

"It hasn't changed much" i said, helping Soda carry his stuff to his room.

"Now this room has changed" he said, "i don't remember it being quiet so empty."

"It'll seem a lot quieter tonight" I said.

"You won't be waking up in the middle of the night" said Soda.

"Nope, that's Davanee's job now" i said.

"How is she?"

"The doctors diagnosed her with something called nightmare disorder. There's no treatment" i said.

"I'm sorry" said Soda.

"It's ok, it's not your fault" i said.

We spent the rest of the night with the gang. For a while, everything was like it used to be; before Soda and Steve left, before I got married, before Davanee was born. Sometimes i wished everything would go back to the way they were. To be honest, i missed it. I missed having the gang over every other night. I missed being able to spontaneously go to the movies. Hell, i even missed going to school during the day. Deep down, i knew things couldn't go back to the way they use to be and i was ok with that. At first, i didn't like this "new life" but now i do. If you think about it, it's part of what sets me apart from the gang.

"We better get going" i said, "I've gotta work tomorrow."

"Me too" said Dallas, getting up from the couch.

"Since when do you work?" i asked.

"I got one last week. Mrs. Mathews agreed to watch Bo duing the day" he said.

"That's good to hear. You know, you can drop her off with use whenever you want" i said.

"Thanks but Mrs. Mathews said she didn't mind. She said she likes having a baby around the house again" said Dallas picking up Bo slowly so he wouldn't wake her.

"Suit yourself" i said.

A couple of days passed and surprisingly, almost everything went backto normal. Steve and Soda go there jobs back at the DX. Davanee and I walked in one day to find Soda sitting behind the counter. It looked like he had never left. His hair had been cut and he went back to greasing it almost immediately.

"Uncle Soda!" shouted Davanee, running towards him.

"Hey, munchkin" he said.

"Would you mind watching her for a little while?" i asked.

"Sure. Why? What are you doing?" asked Soda.

"I've got to pick up Anya" i said.

"Well, can't she just walk home?"

"No. She started going to a new school a couple of weeks ago. It's in the middle of Soc territory. I don't want her walking home" i said.

"Ok. I wouldn't want her walking home either. Why is she going to school over there?" he asked.

"She has to. It's a special school for pregnant girls" i explained.

"Let me guess, her old school made her go there?"

"Yep. She's actually doing pretty well over there" i said.

"That's good.It's hard not to like a person like her" said Soda.

"Tell me about it. I should probably get going. It's going to take me a while to get over there" i said.

"Ok, bye" said Soda.

"Bye Daddy" said Davanee, waving.

"Bye baby" i said, giving her a kiss goodbye.

"What, i don't get a kiss goodbye?" asked Soda.

"No kiss for you" i said. Soda pouted but started cracking up a second later. I left laughing and smiling.

When i pulled in front of the school, i didn't see Anya sitting out front. I waited for a couple of minutes and still no signs of Anya. I got out of the car and found her friend Sarah. Anya had pointed her out to me once or twice.

Sarah took a step back once she saw me, like she was scared of me or something.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Ponyboy Curtis. Have you seen Anya?"

"Yeah, she left a couple of minutes ago" said Sarah, "she said she was walking home."

"Ok, thanks" i said. I got in the truck and headed back to the DX, looking for Anya the whole time. I didn't see her. I figured that she had taken another route home or something.

I pulled up just as Soda and Davanee were about to leave.

"Where are you going?" i asked.

"Two-Bit called from the hospital. There's been an accident" said Soda. The only person i could think of was Anya. I just knew this was about her.

"What'd they do to her?" i asked.

"I don't know. Two-Bit said she doesn't look very good" said Soda, whispering so Davanee wouldn't hear. I put Davanee in her car seat and we got to the hospital as fast as we could. We had to ask a couple of nurses and doctors before we found the right room. I walked into the room and immediatley regretted it. tht limp,bruised body lying in the bed couldn't be Anya. Anya was beautiful. THis girl wasn't. This girl had cuts and bruises all over her face and arms.

There was a nurse in there messing with some of the machines and tubes.

"What happened?" i asked.

"The poor girl got jumped" she said.

"Is she going to be ok?

"The doctors say she should be just fine" said the nurse.

"What about the baby?"

"The baby should be fine too" said the nurse.I sighed a sigh of relief and sat down in the nearest chair. It was practically a miracle the baby hadn't been hurt. I spent the rest of the night waiting for Anya to wake up. She didn't wake up till the next morning.

"Hey baby" she said, her voice hoarse.

"Hey" i said, smiling from ear to ear. I was happy to see those eyes again. "How ya feelin'?"

"Everything hurts" said Anya, "did the doctor say anything about the baby?"

"One of the nurses said the baby shold be fine" i said.

Anya sighed and started crying.

"Baby, what's wrong?" i asked.

"That was so stupid of me. I should have just waited for you to get there but i was in too much of a hurry to get the day over with. The baby could have died" she said.

"Hey, it wasn't your fault. It was the Socs fault. They are the ones who jumped ya" i said, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "The socs really crossed the line this time."

"Yeah, i guess they did" she said.

"Don't worry about it. We'll get our revenge."


	19. date night

It was about 8 or so when I put Davanee to bed that night. Anya had already gone to bed. She came home a couple of days earlier. She still looked pretty bad but the bruises and cuts would heal soon.

I was just about done with putting Davanee to bed when I heard Soda, Two-Bit, and Johnny walk into the apartment.

"What are you doing here?" I whispered, walking out of Davanee's room. Then I noticed that none of them really looked good. They all looked like they had gotten in a fight or something.

"What happened?" I asked.

"We got in a fight with the socs. It was a way of getting back at them" explained Two-Bit.

"Did you win?" I asked.

"Of course we did" said Soda, sitting down on the couch while I got the first aid kit. I walked back into the living room and gave them a couple of band-aids.

"So what happened?" I asked.

"Well, believe it or not we actually went into Soc territory. We hunted down the Socs that jumped Anya and gave 'em a "stern talking to" if you know what I mean. You couldn't even recognize them after we were through with them" said Two-Bit. I smiled a bit. I know it's bad to smile at fighting but I couldn't help it. Besides, those Socs were asking for it. Soda went home while Two-Bit and Johnny ended up spending the night with us.

When I woke up that morning, Two-Bit and Johnny had already left. That was a bit odd because normally they would've stayed for breakfast. I was almost done with breakfast when I saw Davanee standing in the doorway.

"Morning Daddy" she said, rubbing her eyes.

"Morning, sweetie" I said. Davanee took a seat at the table.

"Daddy, what we doing today?"

"Well, I thought that since Halloween is right around the corner we might get you a costume today" I said. Davanee's face lit up like fireworks on the 4th of July.

"But you gotta finish your breakfast first and we gotta wait for Anya to wake up. We're taking her to work today" I said.

"You work too?" asked Davanee.

"Tonight I am" I said.

"Why?"

"Because I have to. If I didn't, We wouldn't have any money" I said.

"I work too?"

"Someday you will but not until your older" I said.

"What I do?"

"Whatever it is that you wanna do. You can be anything you want to be when you grow up" I said.

"I work at movie" she said.

"Why do you want to work at the movies?" I asked.

"So I be just like you" she said. You ever have one of those mornings where you just know that the rest of the day is going to be good because of something that happened in the morning? I was having one of those mornings. When I woke up, I couldn't help but think that day was going to be a bad day, but that statement alone made everything better.

That day was pretty boring. Anya went off to work while Davanee and I looked for a Halloween costume. Of course, she picked a Cinderella costume. After we got the costume, we went home and put it away until Halloween. We were about to go back out when I got a call from my boss. He told me I didn't have to work that night. I hadn't had a night off since I started working there. Don't get me wrong, I like working at the theatre but it's nice to have the night off every once in a while.

"Hey Davanee" I said.

"Yeah?"

"You wanna go to the DX and see Uncle Soda and Uncle Steve?" I asked.

"Anya too?"

"Yep."

"Let's go" said Davanee, putting her jacket on. It didn't take us very long to get to the DX since it was right down the road from our apartment. I kinda liked living on my own, but still being close to the old house and the DX. It's all I ever known.

When we got to the DX, we saw Anya sitting behind the cash register with her feet propped up on the counter. She was looking at a magazine but she didn't look very interested in it. She looked up and smiled when she saw us walk in.

"Hey" she said, dropping the magazine.

"Long day?" I asked

"Yeah. We haven't had a customer in a while. Most of them came this morning" she said.

"Well, I have got a surprise for you" I said,

"What is it?" she asked.

"Well, my boss just gave me the night off" I said.

"That's good. You never get a night off" she said.

"I know and I thought that maybe we could go down to the drive in and see _Casablanca_" I said.

"That sounds great and all but who's going to watch Davanee? She'll get bored with _Casablanca_" said Anya.

"Well, I called Soda here a little while ago and he said he could watch her for the night. He said that we needed a night off" I said.

"So what time does the movie start?" asked Anya.

"7. What time do you get off?" I asked.

"5" she replied.

"That works out perfectly" I said.

The rest of the day went by pretty slowly. Davanee and I spent about an hour or so at the DX. Steve and Soda let her help them work on some of the cars while I talked to Anya. We left when things started getting busy again. I made Davanee take a nap when we got home. She was usually in a bad mood if she didn't take a nap.

Soda stopped by around 4 to pick Davanee up.

"Thanks for taking her tonight" I said.

"No problem. It's kinda quiet around the house without her" said Soda.

"I know. It'll be quiet tonight without her here" I said.

"Yeah, she definitely didn't get your shyness" said Soda, "she looks exactly like you but she acts the exact opposite."

"I've noticed" I said, going into her room. She was still asleep.

"Davanee" I whispered, shaking her softly, "come on sweetie, wake up."

Her eyes fluttered open slowly yet surely.

"Hey baby, Uncle Soda's here to pick you up" I said.

"Why?" she asked, her voice a little hoarse.

"You're gonna spend the night with Uncle Soda and Uncle Darry tonight" I said, helping her out of bed.

"Why?"

"Because Anya and I are going out and we wont be back until later. Come on, let's get dressed" I said. She had changed into her pajamas before she went to bed. She claims that she doesn't like sleeping in her regular clothes.

Once she was dressed, I brushed hair. I tried to put it in pigtails but it didn't work. So I ended up just pulling it back. After that, I handed Davanee off to Soda. She cried a little before she left but Soda got her to calm down once they left. I waited patiently for Anya to get home. I was already dressed and ready to go.

Anya came home around 5:30. It took her almost an hour to get ready.

"Baby, we're going to be late!" I called.

"You try getting ready like this. It's impossible" complained Anya. I really don't see what she was complaining about. She wasn't that big.

"How do I look?" asked Anya, coming into the kitchen. She was wearing a short pink dress and her hair was slightly curled.

"You look beautiful" I said.

"You really think so?"

"Of course I do. You look beautiful no matter what you wear" I said. Anya smiled from ear to ear and blushed slightly.

"Come on, we're going to be late" I said, grabbing the keys and my jacket off the counter.

"Let's walk instead" said Anya when she saw me grab the car keys.

"Why do you want to walk?" I asked.

"It's a nice night. Besides, we haven't been on walk in a long time" she said.

"Alright. If you really want to" I said. I put the keys back on the counter and we started our long walk to the drive in.

The drive in was packed but then again, it was a Saturday. I did see a couple of people I knew but I didn't really feel like talking to them. It's not that I didn't like them or anything, it's just that I was on a date. I had never seen the movie before but I actually liked it even though I'm not a huge fan of old movies.

After the movies, we went to Dairy Queen. Dairy Queen was just as crowded. It was almost impossible to find a table for two. We ended up having to sit at a table in the corner that was all the way in the back.

"It's been a long time since I've been here" said Anya, looking around.

"When was the last time you were here?" I asked.

"When you and I came here. I left school, you left Davanee with Johnny, and we came here" she said. I had almost forgotten about that. Davanee was just a baby when that happened.

"That was a long time ago" I said.

"I've had fun tonight" said Anya.

"I'm glad. We haven't had a fun night in a long time" I said.

"Yeah. It's school or work or parenting or something like that. We haven't had time to be……." Anya had to think about the right word to say.

"Normal kids?" I suggested.

"Yeah, normal kids" she said.

"I agree. I mean, I like being a parent and everything but sometimes you need a break" I said.

"I wouldn't know" said Anya, "I'm not around that much to help with Davanee."

"You help with Davanee enough. You spend time with her whenever you're not doing something that involves school or work" I said.

"Do you really think she even likes me that much?"

"Of course she does. She loves you. You're the closes thing to a mom that Davanee's ever had" I said, "she's lucky to have you. Her real mom didn't want her."

"What happened?" she asked.

"I've never told you?"

"No" said Anya, shaking her head.

"Well, it was a Friday night. Almost the whole gang was over at our house except for Dallas and Johnny. After dinner, we were all sitting out in the living room watching the news when Jamie's brother dropped Davanee off at our front door. She with a note and a basket" I said. I remember that night so vividly. I could even tell you what everyone was wearing if you really wanted to know.

"That's so sad. What did the note say?"

"It said stuff like she's sorry she never told me. It said the baby's name was Davanee, when her birth day was, the number I should call if I wanted to give her to social services, stuff like that" I said.

"Are you glad you never called social services?"

"Yeah, I am. At first I really wanted to but I knew I would feel bad about it. Think about, she was already given up by her mom so could you imagine how heart broken she would be if she found out that her dad gave her up too? It's enough to make a kid think that nobody loves them" I said.

"Could you imagine how unhappy she would be? Davanee seems to be a pretty happy little girl" said Anya.

"She is except for when she has those dreams" I said.

"Yeah but she hasn't had them lately" I said, "maybe Soda being home has something to do with it."

"She probably just missed him" she said.

"Let's hope your right" I said. After an hour or so, we went home. We had to stop by the old house first to pick up Davanee. She was sound asleep when we got there so I had to carry her all the way home.

"She's so adorable when she's asleep" said Anya, "I hope our baby will look that cute."

"I'm sure it will" I said.

"What do you think it's going to be?" she asked.

"I don't know" I said.

"I'm kind of hoping for a girl, but I'll be ok if we get a boy" she said.

"I honestly don't care just as long as it's healthy."


	20. even bigger news

I was a bit nervous about going with Anya to her doctors appointment. This was my first time going to one of these appointments and I didn't really know what to expect. I was kind of hoping that it would be over soon so we could just get it done and out of the way but I knew that if Anya ever heard me say that, I would be sleeping on the couch that night. There is nothing worse then having to sleep on a couch that is as hard as a rock and in the coldest room.

"You ready?" asked Anya.

"Yeah. Let's go" I said, grabbing the keys off of the counter.

"You know, I'm really happy you're coming with me" said Anya as we got in the car.

"Why's that?"

"I dunno, I just am" she said.

I smiled and focused on driving. It took us a while to get to the doctors. We ran into a lot of traffic on the way. When we did get there, there was an enormous amount of kids in the waiting room (half of which were screaming). I filled out the paper work while Anya took a seat in the corner. There were a lot of sick kids around and she didn't to be sick. When I was done with the paper work, I took a seat next to Anya. As we were waiting for our name to be called, I noticed there was a boy sitting across the room with a baby girl in his hands. He looked to be about 14 or so with long dark, hair. He looked a little like me when I was that age. The kid had this scared look on his face, like he had just seen a ghost or something.

The poor kid was trying everything to get the baby to stop crying but nothing was working. I wanted to help him, so I got up and took a seat next to him. He gave me a weird look but went back to his kid. The room continued to thin out but the kid ended up staying a little while.

"She's been crying all morning" said the kid. I'm guessing he was talking to me because I was the only one within hearing range.

"I don't know what to do" he continued.

"Try rocking her" I suggested, "maybe she'll fall asleep."

"I've tried that. It didn't work" he said.

"Maybe you should sing to her. Babies like that" I said.

"You seem to know a lot about babies" said the kid.

"Well, when you have a baby you learn a thing or two" I said.

"I've seen you before" said the kid, "you work at the movie theatre."

"Yeah. What's your name?" I asked.

"Billy. What's yours?"

"Ponyboy" I said. I hated telling people my name for the first time. I would always get some remark like "what were your parents thinking when they named you?" or something along those lines. At first, it really annoyed me but it doesn't bother me so much now. I'm kind of used to it.

"Cool name" he said.

"Thanks" I said.

Before he could say anymore, he let out a big yawn.

"Tired?" I asked.

"I haven't slept in weeks" he said.

"I've just started sleeping again" I said.

"How old is your kid?"

"She's two" I said.

"What's her name?"

"Davanee" I said.

"That's a pretty name" said Billy.

"I didn't name her. Her mother named her" I said, "what about yours? What's her name?"

"This is Christine. She's two month" he said.

"Anya" called the nurse.

"Gotta go" I said, "nice talking to you."

"Bye" said Billy.

Anya and I followed the nurse down the narrow hallway. You could hear kids crying in just about every room. I never really liked going to the doctors. There was something about that place that sent chills up my spine. The room that the nurse put us in was very small, empty, and pink. The whole room looked like it had been sprayed with pink paint.

"The doctor will be with you in a minute" said the nurse. Anya climbed up on the exam table.

"You nervous?" I asked.

"A little bit" she said, "more excited than anything." 'Good' I thought, 'because I'm nervous enough for the two of us. I sat next to Anya on the exam table.

"Thanks for coming" said Anya.

"You're welcome."

"You know, at first I thought you weren't going to come" said Anya.

"Why wouldn't I come?"

"You hate the doctors office. You hate anything that has to do with the doctors office" said Anya.

"Well, yeah, but this is different. This isn't like some check up. For you it might be but for me it isn't" I said.

"Hello" said the doctor walking into the room. It was Dr. Irene. I think Anya was happy to have a girl doctor. I think having a guy doctor might have made her a little uncomfortable. Dr. Irene came in pushing a big machine.

"What's that?" I asked.

"This is an ultrasound. It lets us see the baby. It's a relatively new machine. Unfortunately it's not a very clear image" said Dr. Irene as she hooked up the ultrasound. She had Anya lay down on the table so I had to get off. Dr. Irene put this clear, cold gel all over Anya's stomach. An image popped up on the screen once everything was set up. Dr. Irene was right when she said the image was bad. It was so grainy it was hard to see anything.

"Can you tell what it is?" asked Anya.

"Not yet" said Dr. Irene, "the image is too fuzzy to tell." We spent a couple more minutes looking at the ultrasound. It was kind of cool to see the baby. Well, part of the baby that is.

"Everything looks good" said Dr. Irene, "both of the babies are doing fine."

"See, sweetie, both of the babies are doing fine" I said. But then I realized what I had just said.

"Wait a minute" I said, "did you just say _both_?"

"Yes. Your having twins."


	21. I'm scared

I walked down the small hallway in a daze, not really caring if Anya was following or not. I was numb to the world around me. I couldn't believe it. We were gonna have twins. I couldn't even begin to image how hard it was going to be to have two babies at once. What were we going to do? I could handle on baby, but two? Better yet, how are we going to afford two babies? We're barely getting by with just three people, but five? It was going to be hard, but I liked a challenge.

"Baby" said Anya, coming up behind me.

I snapped out of my daze, only to realize that we were at the car.

"What?" I asked.

"Are you ok? You don't look so good" she said.

"Yeah, I'm fine" I said climbing into the drivers seat.

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"Fine. Why?" she asked.

"You seem totally cool about this" I said.

"I'm happy about it. Are you not happy?" she asked as we pulled out of the parking lot.

"No, I'm happy about. I'm more than happy about it, but I'm shocked" I said.

"Me too" she said. The rest of the car ride was pretty quiet. I was too busy thinking about the news we had just received then to talk. I was so happy about it, I wanted to tell everyone even if I didn't know them. I wanted to know everyone's reaction. I was hopping they would be good, or at least better than the reactions Davanee got. Then something dawned on me. What would Davanee think? Suddenly the reaction of a 2 year old was more important than anyone else's.

I parked the truck in the parking lot of the DX and got out. Anya had to work that day.

"Daddy!" yelled Davanee as she ran up to me. Soda was keeping her while we were at the doctors appointment.

"Hey, sweetie" I said, picking her up, "did you have fun with Uncle Soda?"

"Lots of fun. I work on cars" she said.

"That does sound like fun" I said, walking inside. Soda was behind the counter while Steve was out in the garage. Anya had already come inside and was probably changing in the bathroom.

"So how did the appointment go?" asked Soda.

"It was interesting" I said.

"How was it interesting?" asked Soda.

"I'm not sure if I can tell you. You'll have to ask Anya" I said.

"Is it something I shouldn't know about?" asked Soda.

"Oh no, you have to know about this. It's just that, I'm sure Anya would want to tell you herself" I said.

"Tell him what?" asked Anya, walking out of the bathroom.

"Our big news" I said.

"Oh" said Anya, "tonight. We'll tell everyone tonight."

"You sure about this?" I asked.

"Positive. They have to know sometime" said Anya.

"It's bad, isn't it? Something's wrong with the baby" said Soda.

"Nope. Nothing is wrong" I said.

"Then tell me. I promise I wont tell anybody" said Soda.

"Soda, you have the biggest mouth in the world. I highly doubt you won't tell anyone" said Anya.

"Fine. I guess I'll just have to wait" said Soda.

"I gotta get to work" said Anya.

"Alright. I'll see ya later" I said, giving her a kiss goodbye.

"Bye" she said.

"Thanks Soda for watching her" I said.

"Any time" said Soda. Davanee walked with me out to the truck.

"Daddy, what's the secret?" she asked. I had forgotten that she was listening to that whole conversation. I looked around to make sure there wasn't anybody around. There were a few people but they wouldn't care.

"You promise you won't tell anyone?" I asked.

"Promise" she said.

"Anya's having twins" I said.

"What that mean?"

"It means that she's going to have two babies instead of one" I said.

"So I have 2 brothers?"

"Or 2 sisters, or 1 brother, 1 sisters. We don't know yet" I said.

"That's cool" she said.

"Yeah, it is kinda cool, isn't it? Come on, let's go to the park. We haven't been there for a while" I said. After all, it was a perfect day for going to the park. The park was practically disserted when we got there, which was good because I didn't like big crowds of people. I sat on the bench and watched Davanee play. Watching her made me think of Jamie. I wondered about her sometimes. I wondered if she ever thought about us. I'm sure she did sometimes, but she's probably met someone. I could always be wrong though. She could have forgotten about us entirely. I wondered if Jamie would ever know what she gave up. She missed the opportunity of getting to know her daughter. To this day, I still wonder what made Jamie give up Davanee.

Luckily, Davanee hasn't asked about her yet. I don't she realizes that she's missing something that a lot of kids have. I don't think she's old enough to realize it.

After spending an hour or so at the park, Davanee finally got tired and wanted to go home. She needed a nap anyways. She fell asleep on the way home. I carried her up stairs, to the apartment, and then to her bed. I figured I'd take advantage of her sleeping and do my homework. I didn't really want to do homework but I had to.

I was in the middle of my English homework when I heard Davanee moving around. I got up and checked on her. She was having another nightmare.

"Davanee, baby, wake up" I said, shaking her slightly.

"Daddy!" she cried once she saw me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and cried.

"Shhh…" I said, rubbing her back, "it's ok, sweetie. You'll be alright. Daddy's here." I did this until she clamed down. I thought for sure these nightmares had stopped, but obviously I was wrong. Davanee didn't go back to sleep after she stopped crying, so I let her play with some of her toys in the living room while I worked on my homework. When I was done with my homework, I played with Davanee. While we were playing, I noticed that Davanee didn't play with her army men. Those use to be her favorite toy but now she never touches them. They just sit in a bucket in the corner of the living room.

"Hey Davanee" I said.

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you go play with your army men. Give Barbie and Ken a rest" I suggested.

"I don't wanna. I like Barbie and Ken" said Davanee.

I sighed and said "ok." I wasn't going to force her to play with her army men.

Anya came home a couple of minutes later. As soon as she got home, she hopped into the shower. We had to be at the house by 6 and it was 4:30. I helped Davanee get ready while I was waiting for Anya to get out of the shower.

"Why are we going to see Uncle Darry?" asked Davanee.

"Well, we gotta tell everybody about the twins. Remember, you can't tell anybody" I said.

"I won't" she said. Since Anya wasn't out of the shower before Davanee was done getting dressed, I helped Davanee with her hair. She said she didn't want a ponytail so I just brushed it and left it down.

"Anya, come on" I said, knocking on the bathroom door, "we're going to be late."  
"I'm coming" she said. She stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel with her hair dripping wet.

"You're going like that?" I asked.

"You're just so funny" she said, walking to our room. Davanee and I waited another ten minutes or so for her to get dressed. When she stepped out of our room, she was wearing a skirt and a pink long sleeve shirt. She must have gone shopping because I don't remember seeing her wear that outfit before.

"You look nice" I said.

"Thanks" she said, "I figured I might as well enjoy being thin while I can." Personally, I think she'd look good either way, but I wasn't about to say that aloud. She would probably take it the wrong way.

We arrived at the house around 7:30ish. We were late but nobody seemed to mind. As usual, the tv and the radio were turned all the way up.

"Soda stop cheating!" yelled Steve from the kitchen table.

"I'm not cheating" said Soda as he pulled an ace out of his shoe, "hey, look who's here." Soda turned the radio down a bit as he got up to greet us.

"Where is everybody?" I asked.

"Dally and Two-Bit are on there way. Johnny won't be here till later. He's gotta work late tonight. Maddie said she might be stopping by a little later. Ally is sitting on the couch watching TV and Darry isn't home yet" explained Soda. I didn't even notice Ally when we walked in. I was going to say something to her but her eye's were glued to the TV, almost as if she had never seen one before.

"So, what's this big surprise?" asked Steve.

"I told him you guys had something to tell us" said Soda.

"We do" I said.

"So when are you going to tell us?" asked Ally.

"Later. After dinner" said Anya. Soda, Steve, and Ally looked at me with pleading looks.

"Hey, whatever she says goes" I said.

"You know, I bet Davanee knows" said Soda.

"Yes, I do" she said, climbing up on Soda's lap.

"Why don't you tell us?"

"Daddy say no tell" she said. She was still at that age where she listen to everything I said and she did what she was told.

Soda sighed and said "fine." He and Steve went back to playing their game. Anya and I joined Ally on the couch. Ally looked different to me. She wasn't the little runaway I found in the park that night. Living with Steve has changed her in some way. I was about to ask Ally about it when Maddie came in, out of breath. Maddie had a black eye.

She shut the door behind her and looked out the window through the curtains.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"He's looking for me" said Maddie.

"Who?" asked Ally.

"Joey. My ex. He won't leave me alone" she said, putting Dillon down.

"I thought you said he only hit you once" I said, getting up.

"He did but this time he swears it's the last time" she said.

"He's gonna say that every time" I said, looking at Maddie's eye. He hit her pretty good.

"Where is he?" I asked.

"I don't know. He said he was going to a party or something. He doesn't know I'm here. He thinks I'm still at the house. I had to get out of there. I can't take it any more. Ever since I broke up with him, he's been following me everywhere and hurting me every chance he gets" she said between sobs.

"You and Dillon can stay here tonight" said Soda.

"Thanks Soda" said Maddie.

"You know you're always welcome here" said Soda. It's true. Our door was always open to friends who needed a place to stay. I gave Maddie some ice to put on her eye. Just as she sat down on the couch, the rest of the gang came over. Dallas brought Bo with him. I had never seen quite so many people in our house at one time, but I liked it.

We all sat down to dinner a couple of minutes later. Some of us had to pull up chairs since we didn't have enough in the kitchen. Dinner that night was all that bad. Soda made it. To be specific, we had spaghetti that had blue sauce.

"Daddy, what's that?" asked Davanee, pointing to her plate with a fork.

"It's spaghetti sauce" I said.

"No it's not."

"Yeah it is. Taste it, it tastes good."

Davanee gave me a confused look before taking a bite.

"It is good" she said.  
"I told you" I said.

"So, Pony, what's the occasion. What's this big news?" asked Dallas.

"Let's tell them" said Anya, before I could answer.

"Are you sure? I thought you wanted to wait till after dinner" I said.

"I know but I want to tell them right now. I can't wait any more" she said.

"Alright."

Everyone fell silent so they could hear.

"Well" began Anya, "Pony and I went to the doctors today and we got some very exciting news. I'm going to have twins."

Everyone just stared at us in disbelief. All of there jaws literally dropped. I'm not sure if that was a good response or a bad one.

"Now would be the time to say something" I said.

"That's awesome" said Soda.

"You guys must be really happy" said Darry.

"Yeah. Shocked beyond belief, but happy." There was a lot partying that night. Unfortunately, we had to go home early. That's one of disadvantages of having a kid at 16. You miss out on a lot of opportunities to just be a kid. It's not that you don't have a life, it's just that you don't get a chance to be with your friends as often. I hated not being able to go out with my friends when I was younger, but I've managed to find a way to spend time with friends and Davanee.

We didn't get home till 11 that night, which is pretty late for us. Usually everyone is asleep by 11.

"They didn't seem to happy" said Anya as we were getting ready for bed.

"Maybe they just have to get use to the idea. It might take a little time" I said.

"Let's hope that's the case" said Anya, lying down. I turned the lights off and laid down next to her.

"I'm scared" said Anya.

"Of what?"

"I don't think I can do this. I mean, taking care of one baby is one thing but two babies at the same time? I can't do it" she said.

"Of course you can. There's nothing to be scared about. Everything's gonna be ok" I said. I was trying to convince myself more than I was her. I think I was more scared then she was. I was scared that we couldn't take care of them. I'm sure this was a common fear, but it was my first time going through any of this.


	22. Face Down

This chapter is sort of based on the song "Face Down" by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. If you haven't heard it, it's all about this girl who's being abused by her boyfriend

"What do you think of the name Grace?" asked Anya one night after dinner. We were both doing homework at the kitchen table.

"It's ok" I said.

"You don't like it?"

"It's not one of my favorites" I said.

"What about Scotty if one of them is a boy?" she asked.

"I like that one" I said.

"Good. We can add that one to our list" she said. We had been working on a list of baby names. So far we had about 10 names. 5 were girls and 5 were boys.

On the girls list we had (in no particular order):

Dakota

Layla

Belle

Bella

Pepsi (my personal favorite)

On the boys list we had:

Scotty

Noah

Jonah

Riley

Jasper (Anya's favorite)

I wasn't absolutely crazy about a lot of those names, but Anya loved all of them which made it hard for her to pick.

"How about we just focus on our homework right now?" I suggested.

"Fine but you know we gotta pick out a name sometime. Our kids can't go nameless" she said.

"We'd be incredibly bad parents if we didn't name our kids" I said.

Anya couldn't help but laugh. I loved it when she laughed. It was music to my ears. It was a sweet laugh, almost child like. It was one of those laughs that can make you smile when you're in a terrible mood. All Anya had to do was laugh and my day would be wonderful. I know it may sound corny, but it's the truth.

"What are you thinking about?" asked Anya. She noticed I was smiling at the thought of her.

"Nothing" I said.

"Right. Come on, tell me" she said.

"You" I replied, "and Davanee, and the twins."

"Just a couple more months" she said.

"Baby, it's only October. I think we've got more than a couple of months."

"I know, but I'm anxious" she said.

"You didn't say that last month. If memory serves, I think the phrase was 'I can't wait to get this over and done with'."

"But that was last month. This is this month. Next month it might be different" she said.

"I think I'm gonna take a break for a little while" I said.

"Good idea" said Anya.

"Think I'm gonna go for a walk" I said.

"Ok but be careful. I don't want you getting hurt" she said.

"I'll be careful" I said. I grabbed my jacket and left. It was really cold out that night, which is somewhat normal for this time of year. For a little while, I wondered around the streets aimlessly. I did that sometimes. I would get so wrapped up in whatever I was thinking about, I wouldn't pay attention to what I was doing or where I was going.

I looked up and found myself at the park. Somehow, I always found myself at the park no matter which direction I went in. I was about to walk past it, but I saw someone laying down in the grass. At first I thought it was Johnny, but then I saw the person's long, brown hair. I walked over to find Maddie in the grass. She looked like she was asleep. Something wasn't right. Maddie was suppose to be back at the apartment. Normally she would come home on time and if she didn't she would call.

I took a step closer only to see that she was covered with bruises and cuts.

Her eyes opened a little.

"Ponyboy?" she asked, her voice hoarse. She tried to get up but I made her lay back down.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I don't know. Joey saw me with one of my guy friends and he just went crazy" she said.

"We gotta get you to the hospital. Stay there, I'll be right back" I said. I ran as fast as I could to the house. I didn't care if Darry and Soda were already asleep. Maddie needed help. When I got to the house, I saw that the lights weren't on. I marched right in the house, careful not to step on anyone who was sleeping on the floor.

"Darry" I said, shaking him slightly. He moved a little but he didn't wake up.

"Darry" I said, this time louder. I shook him harder.

"Ponyboy? What's wrong?" he asked, opening his eyes a little.

"You gotta come quick. It's Maddie" I said.

"Is she ok?" asked Darry, sitting up.

I shook my head no.

"Alright, give me a minute" he said. I walked out of the room and waited. Darry was ready to go in less than a minute. He drove to the park and I showed him where Maddie was. She was right where I left her. Without saying a word, Darry picked her up and carried her to the truck. Now, Darry really isn't one to go over the speed limit, but that night he was doing 95 in a 65 zone. We were at the hospital in 8 minutes flat. I filled out the paper work while the doctors took Maddie to a room. Darry followed them but he was told to wait outside. Once I was done with the papers, I gave them to the nurse at the front desk and took a seat in the waiting room. Darry joined me a couple of minutes later.

"What happened to her?" he asked. I stayed silent. I know I should tell him but I didn't want to betray Maddie's trust. Trust was a very important thing to me.

"I know you know what happened. Pony, you've got to tell me" he said.

I hesitated a couple of minutes, contemplating whether or not I should tell him.

"It was Joey" I said, "her ex. She broke up with him and he hasn't been taking well."

"Why didn't she tell us?"

"Maybe she didn't want anybody to know" I said.

"She told you, didn't she?"

"Yeah but I sort of weaseled it out of her. I should've told you guys what was going on. This whole thing wouldn't of happened if I had spoken up" I said.

"It's not your fault or her fault. It's Joey's fault. Somebody should talk to him, knock some sense into that kid."

"Literally or was that a metaphor?" I asked.

"Right now I'm thinking literally."  
"I'm gonna go call Anya so she doesn't worry" I said, getting up. It seemed like it took Anya forever to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, babe" I said.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"Sweetie, there's been an accident."

"What?! Are you ok? Where are you?" she asked rather panicky.

"I'm at the hospital. I'm ok but Maddie isn't. I found her laying in the park. She's been beaten up pretty bad" I said.

"Socs?" asked Anya.

"Nope. Joey. He beat her up pretty good" I said.

"I'll be there first thing in the morning" she said, "I can't come right now because Davanee and Dillon are asleep. Besides, I don't want Dillon to see Maddie like that" she said.

"That's probably a good idea. I might not be home for a little while if that's ok" I said.

"That's fine. Maddie needs you more than I do right now. Who's there?" she asked.

"Just Darry and I. I was getting ready to call the rest of the gang" I said.

"Ok, I'll let you go then. You call me when you hear anything about her, ok?"

"I will."

"Alright. And tell Maddie I love her and I'll be there in the morning" she said.

"Alright, babe. I love you" I said.

"Love you too" said Anya. With that, we both hung up. I proceeded to call the rest of the gang. Almost everyone came except Dallas. He had to stay with Bo but he would be there first thing in the morning, like Anya. The last person I called was Maddie's father, who really should've been the first person now that I think about it. I explained everything to him and he was at the hospital within minutes.

"Where is she?" he asked.

"Down the hall. They won't let anybody in right now. They said to wait out here" I said.

"How bad is she?" he asked.

"Pretty bad" I said. A grave look swept across his face as he sat down in the waiting room.

"I can't believe this. I can't believe I'm this blind" he said, holding his head in his hand. I think he was talking more to himself then to me.

"It's ok" I said, "we all make mistakes."

"I wanna kill him, that little" Maddie's dad then proceeded to call Joey every name under the sun.

"That makes two of us" I said.

"Thank you" said Maddie's dad.

"For what?"

"For saving her."

"But I didn't do anything."

"Yes you did. If you hadn't found her, she could've died." Just then, a doctor came out of Maddie's room.

"Are you Mr. Lane?" asked the doctor.

"Yes."

"Can I talk to you in private for a moment?" he asked. Mr. Lane got up and followed the doctor to an empty corner of the room. As the doctor talked, Mr. Lane's expression went from bad to worse. By the end of the conversation he was in tears. I let him go and see her first. After all, he was her father.

After about an hour or so, I was allowed to go in. Of course, I had to lie and say I was her brother because only family members were allowed in at that time. The girl that I saw lying in that hospital bed was not Maddie. Maddie was always happy. She was always laughing and smiling. She hardly ever cried and when she did it was from laughing so much. This pale (almost purple and blue), thin body wasn't her. She had so many tubes hooked up to her, I lost count.

"What did the doctor say?" I asked.

"She's in a coma. They don't know when she'll come out" said Mr. Lane. My heart skipped a couple of beats when I heard that. Now I really wanted to kill Joey. 'If she dies' I thought, 'it's going to be his fault and there's gonna be hell to pay.'

"I'll stay here with her" said Mr. Lane, "you go on home."

I forced a smile and said "see you tomorrow." Darry drove me home that night. The car ride was pretty silent. I didn't know what to say. This girl who had become like a little sister to me over the past couple of years was lying unconscious in a hospital bed because of something that could have been prevented.

Before I got out of the car, Darry asked "are you ok?"

I shook my head and said "yeah. I'll be ok." I said good night to Darry and climbed the stairs to the apartment. I walked in to find Anya sitting at the kitchen table waiting for me.

"How is she?" she asked.

"She's in a coma. The doctors don't know when she'll wake up" I said.

"Oh my God" said Anya, standing up.

"There's nothing they can do now. It's up to her" I said.

"What's going to happen to Dillon?" asked Anya.

"We'll watch him" I said.

"You really think we can handle two 2 year olds?"

"It'll be good practice" I said, "let's get to bed. We can go to the hospital in the morning."


	23. Your Guardian Angel

_this chapter is based on the song Your Guardian Angel by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and a passage from the book Night by Elie Wiesel_

_Night:_

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which turned my life into one long night, 7 times cursed and 7 times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky."

2 weeks had passed and Maddie didn't wake up. The doctors wanted to pull the plug but her dad said no. We weren't about to give up that easily. Every beep of the machine was a sign that Maddie was still there. She was still holding on. I didn't want her to die, not like this. For some reason, I felt like this whole thing was my fault. I should've told somebody what was going on. Darry. Anya. Anybody. Now, I wanted to kick myself because I kept my mouth shut. I thought that things would clear up on there own but I was wrong. Not speaking up just made things worse for everybody.

I sat down next to her bed and held her hand. Her hand was so cold, it scared me. Her whole appearance scared me. She was so pale, her skin tone matched the color of the sheets. A nurse came in and checked the tubes and machines.

"You know, she's lucky to have such good friends" said the nurse, "a lot of coma patience never have any visitors. I hope she pulls through."

I just smiled in return. I watched Maddie silently, waiting for any form of movement. Of course, she didn't move. I didn't know what to do. I felt powerless because I couldn't help her. Nobody could help her, except God. But what has God done to help her so far? Nothing. If he were the God that people talk about, she wouldn't be lying in that bed. She'd be watching Dillon. My sadness slowly turned to anger. I was angry at God. He didn't do anything. He wasn't there when Maddie got hurt, he wasn't there when Soda got drafted, and he sure as hell wasn't there when my parent's car stopped on those train tracks. If He was the God that He's suppose to be, why did all this bad stuff happen? Maddie was a good girl, she didn't do anything to deserve this. She never hurt anybody.

"Where are you?" I asked aloud, "whenever I need you, you're never around. Are you too busy for me or something? Are you just too good for me? What is it? What have I done wrong? Are you mad at me? Is that it? Look, I'm sorry for whatever I did, but don't make her suffer because of it. Can you not see her? She's lying in a hospital, she's gonna die! Am I responsible for that too? I'm sorry! I know it's my fault. I'll do anything for her. She's got something to live for. You can take anything you want away from me, but don't take her. She's just a kid." I was in tears by that point. I was about to give up all hope when I felt Maddie's hand move. She stirred a little before she opened her eyes. That's the day I started believing.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"You're in the hospital" I said, wiping the tears away before she could see.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Joey beat you up. I found you lying in park" I said.

Maddie fell silent. I left to go call her dad while she rested. You woulda thought that after spending two weeks in a coma, she would've been pretty well rested. Her dad said that he would come as soon as he could. I stayed with her until he came.

By the time Maddie's dad walked through the door of that hospital room, she was already smiling and laughing.

Without saying so much as a hello, Mr. Lane ran over and gave Maddie a hug and a kiss.

"I thought I'd lost you" he said.

"You're not gonna get rid of me that easily" said Maddie, through a smile and tears.

"I'll let you two get reacquainted" I said.

"No, no. stay" said Mr. Lane. I said ok and sat back down. I stayed until it got dark out. Maddie's dad had to go back to work so I agreed to watch her until Dallas got there. We all took turns staying with her.

"How long have you been here?" asked Maddie.

"All day" I said.

"Why don't you go home. You must be tired" said Maddie.

"It's ok. I'm not that tired anyways" I said, lying. I felt like I was going to fall asleep right there.

"Joey hasn't been by here, has he?" asked Maddie.

"No."

"That's good. I don't want to see him anyways. You must think I'm pretty stupid" she said.

"I don't think you're stupid. Why would I think that?" I asked.

"I dunno. I thought I loved him. At first, everything was ok. We kissed a couple of times and he never laid a hand on me. But then something changed. He got really mad at me one day for something stupid and he gave me a black eye. I don't know what I did. He didn't bother to tell me what I did wrong. Everything went down hill from there. I remember one time I was at the DX and I was talking to Soda about something. Joey walked in and he acted real cool in front of Soda but when we got home, he gave me hell for talking to him. He said 'don't you ever talk to him again.' That's why I kinda stopped hanging around you guys. I was afraid that Joey would start going after you guys. But then it got worse. Dillon said did something that made Joey mad and he hit him so hard he nearly broke his arm. That's the night you found me in the park. He got mad at me for interfering. I'd much rather it be me than Dillon" said Maddie, tears filling her eyes.

"I know what you mean. I'd rather somebody hurt me than Davanee" I said. Saying that made me think of the day we got jumped. I had been a long time since I'd thought about that. I wanted the Socs to hurt me, not Davanee.

I waited a little while longer until Soda, Steve, and Dallas came. Soda and Steve just got off work and they really hadn't had a chance to visit Maddie until then.

"Hey, she's awake" said Soda. Soda was the only one that gave her a hug.

"So how ya feelin' kid?" asked Dallas.

"Better. I don't really remember anything that happened that night" she said.

"That's probably a good thing you don't remember" said Steve.

"I'm gonna go call Anya" I said, getting up, "I'll be back in a minute."

"Hey, I'll come with you" said Soda, jumping up, "I'm kinda thirsty."

Soda went to get something to drink while I headed towards the phone. I was about to drop a quarter in when I saw Joey come off the hospital. He had some girl with him. She was a greasy girl, that's for sure. She was wearing a black, leather skirt that looked way too small and a short, red shirt.

"Where is she?" asked Joey once he saw me.

"I'm not telling you" I said.

"Come on man, I wanna see her" he said.

"You're not gonna see her. She doesn't wanna see you anyways" I said.

"What are you talking about? I'm her boyfriend" he said.

"Look, either you and your skanky girlfriend get outa here or I'll call the cops" I said.

"You think the cops scare me? You should see my record" said Joey.

"Yeah, and you should see mine. It's about three times as long and five times as bad as yours. I don't wanna hear it" said Dallas, coming up behind me, "you better get outa here or we'll have you thrown in jail so fast, you won't even know what hit you."

"And what would I go to jail for? You can't just send me there because you feel like" said Joey.

"No but we can send you there for assault, battery, child abuse, harassment, take your pick" I said.

"Come on babe" said Joey, putting his arm around the girl, "let's get outa here."

Dallas walked back to the room while I called Anya. Since I had been at the hospital all day, she wanted me to come home. I said my goodbyes to the gang and told Maddie I would be back later. When I drove home that night, I was about to fall asleep at the wheel. I did my best to keep my eyes open until I got home and fortunately, I did.

Once I got home, Anya practically forced me to go to bed. Davanee was already asleep so I didn't get a chance to kiss her goodnight. I didn't really sleep well that night. I kept on waking up. I woke up around 3 and decided to walk around a little. When I stepped out of my room, I saw Davanee walking down the hall.

"Daddy?" asked Davanee.

"Baby, what are you doing out of bed?" I asked, picking her up.

"Bad dream" she said.

"Again?"

She nodded her head yes.

"You hungry?" I asked.

"Is it breakfast already?" she asked.

"No but sometimes it helps after you've had a bad dream" I said, carrying her to the kitchen. She sat down at the kitchen table while I got out the bread and butter. My mom always made me bread and bed after I had a bad dream. For some odd reason, it always helped. Bread and butter was sort of like a comfort food to me.

Davanee went right to sleep afterwards. I knew the bread and butter would work. It works every time.


	24. Halloween

We all went over to the house the Sunday after Maddie got out of the hospital. Maddie was back to her old self again, except she was a bit more careful when it came to guys. She said she didn't want a replay of what happened with Joey. For some reason, she continually asks if Joey came to the hospital. I always lie to her and say no.

That afternoon, we got together for a little football. It had been forever since we've played football together. It was almost the same teams as last time. Darry, Two-Bit, Johnny, and I were on one team and Soda, Steve, and Dallas were on the other. Ally and Anya decided to sit the game out. I didn't really want Anya playing anyways. Things can get kinda rough when we play and I didn't want her getting hurt.

We were taking a break when Davanee asked if she could play. I knew this wouldn't go over so well, but I let her play anyways.

"Guys, Davanee's playing" I announced once we got back to our game.

"What? Why?" asked Steve.

"Look, she'll get bored with it in a couple of minutes. Let's just let her play for a little while" I said.

Steve sighed and said fine.

"Now, Davanee, when I give you the ball, you run all the way to the other end of the field, ok?" I asked.

"Otay" she said.

So, when I gave her the ball she ran as fast as her little legs could carry her to the other end of the field. Of course, Soda, Steve, and Dallas let her score. But she didn't know they did, so she was happy.

"Now what?" asked Davanee.

"Spike it" I said.

"What's dat?"

"Throw the ball down."

So she threw the ball down as hard as she could.

"Now do a victory dance" I said. So she did what she thought was dancing, which was mainly jumping up and down. It was actually kinda cute.

"Ok, now how about you go back to playing Barbies when Anya" I suggested.

"Otay, Daddy" she said, "I love you."

"I love you too" I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. She ran to join Anya, who was sitting on a bench with a bucket of Barbies sitting next to her. Davanee absolutely insisted that we bring Barbies with us. Sometimes I thought I was spoiling her, but be a little spoiled never hurt anybody.

"I love you" said Steve, mocking me as I joined the game.

"Shut up" I said. We finished the game within an hour or so. Our team won, 37-27. It was hard to win against Soda, Steve, and Dally but there were those occasional times. The rest of the gang went about there day while Anya, Davanee, and I stayed at the park. I promised Davanee I would let her play at the park when the game was over. It was starting to get a little cold out and she liked playing outside when it was cold. I'm not a big fan of cold weather but I could live with it.

"Daddy, look what I found. It's a froggy" said Davanee, holding a tiny green frog in her hand. The frog fit perfectly in the palm of her hand.

"What sound does the frog make?" I asked.

"Wipit, wipit."

"That's good" I said, smiling. Davanee ran and put the frog back where she found it.

"Come on, baby" I said, "let's go home."

"Why go home?" asked Davanee.

"You know what tonight is, don't you?" asked Anya.

Davanee shook her head no.

"It's Halloween. You don't wanna be tired for trick or treating do you?" I asked.

Davanee smiled and said "no way." So we went home. I wanted Davanee to take a nap before we went out that night but she was too excited, so she sat on the couch and watched Cinderella. She would watch Cinderella about a hundred times and never get tired of it. I on the other hand could. I had to rewind that tape about five times. By the fifth time I just wanted to throw it out of the window, but I didn't.

We went back to the house around 4 or so. Davanee was all dressed up in her Cinderella costume.

Almost everybody was there. Even Kara and Hailey. Hailey grandparent's dropped her off a couple of minutes after we got there. They apologized for it being so last minute but they had an emergency. I said that it would be no problem to take her around for a little while. Hailey was dressed as snow white and Kara was Minnie Mouse. That suited her because she was a big Minnie Mouse fan. I found it a bit ironic that Two-Bit like Mickey, and Kara like Minnie.

Anya had originally planed to go trick or treating with us but she changed her mind once we got to the house. She said that she didn't feel good and wasn't up for it. So I was stuck with the kids while everybody else had fun. That's usually how it went, but that night I didn't mind.

Everything was going fine until we came across a bunch of Socs. We had just come from a house and were walking back to the sidewalk when we saw them messing around in the street. Fortunately, that street wasn't the only way to get to the rest of the houses.

"Come on, let's go this way" I said, walking in the other direction, but Kara didn't listen to me. She walked straight toward the socs. Hailey and Davanee followed.

"Well, looky what we got here" said Bob, stopping the girls.

"Pay the toll, kid" said one soc.

"What toll?" asked Kara.

"You give us all your candy, and we might let you go" said another.

"But I like candy" said Kara. Bob laughed and snatched the bag right out of her hand, causing her to cry. The socs let Kara and Hailey by.

"Wait a minute" said Bob, stopping Davanee, "I know you. You're uncle's around?" Davanee shook her head no.

"Haven't you got anything better to do than to pick on kids who are about five times smaller than you?" I asked, walking up to Bob and the rest of the Socs. The girls ran and hid behind me.

"What are you gonna do about it, Curtis?" asked Bob.

"Remember that little talk we had about two years ago at the Tastee Freeze? You called me a screw-up and I said if you ever lay so much as one hand on her, I'll kill ya. What makes you think I won't? If you ever try to do anything to her or any of these girls again, I'll kill you, got it?" I asked, getting in his face.

"Come on guys, let's go" said Bob, "this neighborhood is really lame anyways." Bob and his gang walked back to there cars and sped off down the road.

"Come on, Kara" I said, "we'll get you a new bag." By the time we got back to the house, I was carrying Davanee and Hailey (both of which were asleep). Kara was walking right next to me. Soda took Hailey from me, laid her down on the couch, and covered her up with a blanket.

"We should probably go" said Anya.

"Yeah, we'll see you guys later" I whispered so I wouldn't wake Davanee up. Davanee slept the whole way home but I had to wake her up to get her out of her costume.


	25. Going by covers

"How can a family of three use up this much money?" I asked as Anya and I looked over the bills.

"It's easy when nobody ever turns out the lights" said Anya, looking over the electric bill. That's true. I had a hard time remembering to turn out the lights whenever I left the room and ,unfortunately, I think Davanee has inherited that habit from me. My parent used to reprimand all the time for leaving the lights on. They always said "you'll never realize how much money that costs us until you pay the bills." They were right (they always were right). I had no idea an electric bill would cost that much.

"You know I've been thinking about getting a second job. You know, get one for week nights and I can work at the movie theatre on the weekends" I said. Looking at the bills convinced me that having one job wasn't enough. We needed another source of income and we needed it fast.

"I dunno. What kind of job?" asked Anya.

"There's this country club over on the other side of town that's looking for busboys to work in the dinning. The pay isn't that bad considering the position. The club is called San Jose" I said.

"I've been there before. Nothing but a bunch of rich people playing golf and what not. How much does it pay?"

"8 dollars an hour" I said.

"That's not bad at all. What are the hours?"

"Well, it's during the day so we would have to find somebody to watch Davanee" I said.

"I dunno. I suppose you can apply if you really think we need the money and if you can find someone to baby sit" said Anya. I smiled and gave her a kiss. Sure, the job didn't sound all that great but we needed the money badly. Anya parents gave us money as a wedding present, but that wouldn't last forever.

The next day I went down to the country club to apply. Davanee had to come with me sense I couldn't get anybody to baby sit. The place was really nice. The dinning room had white table clothes with fancy, folded napkins. The people just looked at me like I was an alien or something. These people were dressed nicely. The men were wearing button shirts and sports coats while the ladies had nice dresses.

"Can I help you?" asked one of the waiters.

"Yeah, I'm here to apply for a job but I don't know where to go" I said.

"Talk to the lady at the front desk, she'll help you" said the waiter, pointing me in the right direction. The lady at the front desk looked to be a little over 50 or so. She was wearing a skirt, shirt, and sweater (which have all seen better days judging by the faded color). Her grey hair was done up loosely in a bun that rested on the top of her head. She looked up at me and smiled, causing her wrinkles to show all around her mouth. She put on her coke-bottle glasses and ask "how may I help you." I explained my situation to the women as politely as I could. She handed me an application form and went right back to her work.

I took a seat and filled it out so I wouldn't be in peoples way. I kinda felt bad that Davanee had to sit there and watch me. She looked bored to death.

"Daddy, I go look out window" she said, hoping up from her chair. I said ok and let her go. The window was within sight so I figured she'd be ok.

"Daddy, look" said Davanee, pointing to the pool, "it's a pool."

"I see" I said, not really paying much attention to the pool.

"Daddy, we go swimming?" she asked.

"Nope, not today baby" I said as I finished filling out the papers. I handed the papers back to the lady. Then I walked over to the window and stood beside Davanee.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because it's too cold. You'll get sick. You don't want to get sick, do you?" I asked.

Davanee shook her head no. Davanee held my hand as we walked out of the country club. The lady at the front desk smiled at us as we walked out. Davanee smiled and waved in return.

"She's cute" said the lady.

"Yeah, she is" I said, smiling.

"Where we go now?" asked Davanee.

"How about we go see Uncle Soda and Uncle Steve?" I asked.

"Yay!" shouted Davanee so loud that people looked at us.

"Shhh, not so loud" I said.

"Sorry."

"It's ok. Maybe we can go to lunch with Uncle Soda and Uncle Steve" I said.

"Really?" asked Davanee, her eyes lighting up.

"You have to be a good girl."

"I be a vewy good girl" she said, "Anya come too?"

"Yep she's coming too" I said, putting Davanee in her car seat. I strapped her in and got in the truck. We spent a couple of hours with Soda, Anya, and Steve. It turns out that all three of them had to work straight through there lunch break, the place was so busy.

Once the rush was over, we finally got a chance to talk.

"I thought those people would never leave" said Anya as she sat down behind the counter, "so how was your day?"

"Pretty good. I went down to the country club and applied for the job" I said.

"What'd they say?"

"They said that I should get a call within the next couple of weeks" I said. Just then, we heard a car horn coming from the pumps.

"I've gotta go" said Anya.

"That's ok, we'll wait here" I said. Anya smiled and left to go help the people.

"So how was the country club?" asked Soda.

"It was interesting. It was mostly a lot of rich people playing golf and having brunch and stuff. I should probably get going. I've gotta work tonight. Anya's gonna take Davanee home with her" I said.

"Alright. See ya later" said Soda.

"Bye."

I had to go home first before I went to work. The only bad thing about working (in my opinion) is that I had to wear a uniform. I hated uniforms. I was glad I never had to go to private school, or else I would have to wear them all the time.

I running a little late so I was practically speeding on the way to work. Several people honked there horns and yelled at me but I didn't care. I was too late to care. The tires squealed as I pulled into the parking lot. I locked up the truck and ran inside, careful not to be seen by Tim. Fortunately, he wasn't there that night. Someone said he had come down with a case of food poisoning and wouldn't be in for the rest of the week. That night at work wasn't so bad. I had to work the concession stand. Normally, I just cleaned the theatres but they were short handed that night.

I was about to go on my break when I saw Hannah and Savannah walking in. Hannah and Savannah were two 11 year old girls who came to the movies every weekend just to see me. At first it was a bit flattering but then it just go to be a bit annoying. They loved to ask questions.

"Hey Pony" said Hannah, walking right up to my register.

"Hey Hannah, Savannah" I said, smiling. They loved it whenever I smiled. It made them giggle so much, people looked at them like there was something wrong.

"What can I get you guys?" I asked.

"M&Ms and a Pepsi, please" said Hannah.

"What about you, Savannah?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't want anything. I'm not that hungry" said Savannah.

"Ok, suit yourself" I said, handing Hannah her Pepsi and M&Ms.

"Bye Pony, see you tomorrow" said Hannah as they marched off towards there movie. I just waved. Now I know how Soda feels when he has those little girls swarm him. I didn't really mind it so much. I thought it was kind of sweet.

I left work early that night. When I got home, Anya was in the living room and Davanee was asleep.

"How was work?" asked Anya.

"Fine. Boring but fine" I said, sitting next to her on the couch.

"I'm sorry to hear it was boring" she said, a bit distraught.

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm fine. It's just……………..oh, I don't know" she said.

"It's ok, you can tell me" I said.

"I don't think I wanna work any more" said Anya.

"What? Why not?"

"It's just that whenever I talk to customers, I feel like they're staring at my stomach, like they're judging me before they know me" said Anya, looking down at her stomach.

"I kinda know how you feel. When Davanee was a baby, whenever I took her out, I kinda felt like people were judging me before they got to know me or Davanee" I said. It was hard to forget the stares I got when Davanee was baby. I still get them now, but I'm used to it. It doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I've never told anybody this, but sometimes I would cry about it when I thought nobody was around to hear me.

"Can you feel them?" I asked out of nowhere.

"What?"

"The babies. Can you feel them moving around?" I asked.

"Yeah. It's kinds cool actually. I felt one of the kick today. You wanna feel?"

I nodded. She took my hand and put it on her stomach. At first I didn't feel anything, but then I felt it. It made me jump a little but I liked it. I never got to go through this kind of stuff with Davanee, so it was new to me. I kept my hand there a little while longer, hoping that one of the babies would kick again.

"It's kinda cool, isn't it?" she asked, smiling.

"Very cool. It'd be even cooler if we knew what they were" I said. I really wanted to know what we were having but at that point there was no way of knowing. The ultrasounds weren't that advanced yet.

"Honestly, I think both of them are girls, but I could be wrong" she said, "would you be upset if they were both girls?"

"No. I like baby girls" I said, giving her a kiss.

"I'm kinda hoping for girls" said Anya, "I've heard that boy babies are harder to handle."

"I wouldn't know, but I would imagine they are" I said.

"Oh, did I tell you my friend Sarah had her baby?" asked Anya.

"No. When'd she have it?" I asked.

"Last week. It was born about two months premature. The poor baby might not make it. I saw Sarah at the hospital today after school. She looked really upset. What if that happens to us?" asked Anya.

"That won't happen" I said.

"How can you be so sure?"

"I just know it won't" I said.

Anya smiled and said "you're probably right. I better get to bed, I've gotta be at work early tomorrow."

"Why?"

"I dunno. The boss just decided to open early tomorrow" she said.

"You'd think that he'd give you a bit of a break" I said, getting up off the couch.

"It's ok. I don't mind working so much" she said, walking towards our room, "you coming?"

"Yeah, I'm just going to check on Davanee first."


	26. Spoiled little brat

Davanee and I were about to leave when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hello is this Ponyboy Curtis?" asked a man from the other end.

"Yes. Who's this?" I asked.

"This is Dave Morrow. I'm the manager from San Jose Country Club. I was just calling to tell you that I was rather impressed with your application. You got the job" said Mr. Morrow.

"Oh, thank you so much Mr. Morrow. You don't know how much I need this job" I said.

"Please call me Dave. Now, you start Monday so I want to see you here bright and early" said Dave.

Dave and I talked a little while longer. He told me about all the employee benefits, hours, pay, stuff like that. The hours for my new job didn't really work out like I had planned. I worked days, which meant that I would either have to take Davanee to work with me or find someone to baby sit here. Dave said the club offered a nice day care service to employees but I wasn't sure if I wanted to put Davanee in day care just yet. In my opinion, she seemed too young.

"Who dat?" asked Davanee.

"That was my new boss. Daddy got the job at the country club" I said.

"Yay!"

"Sweetie, how would you like it if you went with me to work?" I asked.

"I spend all day wit you?" she asked.

"No, you would be playing with other kids while I go work" I said.

"I not see you?"

"No, you'll see me but it'll be after work" I said.

"I make friends" said Davanee.

"Yeah, you'll make some new friends."

We went to the DX and told everybody about the new job. Everyone seemed happy about it except Anya. When I told her all she could say was oh and she went right back to working. I waited till Soda and Steve went out to the garage so we could talk about it. I sent Davanee out there with them.

"What's wrong? I thought you wanted me to take this job" I said.

"We'll never see you" she said.

"What are you talking about? Of course you'll see me" I said.

"When? I'm at school all day and work in the afternoons. You work all day and go to school at night. Besides weekends, when are we going to see each other?" she asked.

"Of course we'll see each other. I'll be over here every day, I promise. I'll be here every day after work and during my lunch break" I said.

"You sure?"

"Have I ever broken a promise to you?" I asked.

Anya shook her head and said "no. I'm sorry I got mad at ya. All these hormones are starting to take a toll on me."

"That's ok" I said, giving her a kiss.

"What do you have going on at school tonight?" asked Anya.

"Nothing really. Just a bunch of test and quizzes. I better get going, I'll see you tonight" I said.

"Alright. What time do you think you'll be home?" she asked.

"I dunno. School is suppose to get out a little early tonight so somewhere around 8:30" I said.

"Ok, I'll see you when you get home" said Anya, giving me a kiss. I left Anya and Davanee at the DX. I really didn't want to leave but I had to. I couldn't afford to miss school. Sometimes I thought it would be easier to drop out, but Darry would kill me if I dropped out. He was somewhat ok with Soda dropping out but not with me.

School turned out to be ok that night. That night was Maddie's first night back. Everybody swarmed her with questions and comments and what not. She was right in the middle of a group of girls, who were asking rather personal questions, when she shot me a look that said "help me." So, I intervened and told the girls there really was not story. I told them that Maddie was just very sick. They seemed to believe me and took there seats. The rest of school wasn't that interesting. Like I said before, we just had a bunch of tests and quizzes.

When I got home that night, I was rather surprised to see that all the lights in the apartment were off. Normally, Anya would have stayed up and waited for me. I know this may sound bad, but my first initial thought was that something was wrong. It turns out that Anya got tired and couldn't wait up for me any longer. She went to bed just minutes before I went home. Davanee on the other hand was almost always asleep when I got home, but there were those few occasions where she would be watching TV when I walked in.

That weekend went by pretty fast. Not having plans tends to make things go by fast for me. That Monday, I started my new job. I got there a couple of minutes before the club opened. I met the manager at the front desk. Dave looked to be around 60 or so. My guess was that he'd been around that club for a long time. Dave was wearing a grey sports jacket with a button down shirt. I don't mean to be rude or anything ,but he was rather short. He had short, grey hair with a bald spot in the back. His skin was slightly tan and wrinkled.

"You must be Ponyboy. I'm Dave. Welcome to San Jose" he said, sticking his hand out for me to shake. I shook his hand and smiled as politely as I could.

"Nice to meet you" I said.

"Come, I'll show you around before we opened" said Dave. We started the tour with the dinning room, which I had already seen. We then proceeded to tour the ballroom and other party rooms. We were about half way through the tour when he had another employee show me the golf course and pool. The other employee was his son, Jack. Jack seemed to be really nice. He was tall, with dark hair and dark eyes.

Last came the nursery. Jack said I probably wouldn't be working the nursery very often but there were those few occasions. It turns out that my first day was one of those occasions. We had about 20 kids that day. Jack and another employee named Samantha helped.

"You seem to have a way with kids" said Jack, watching me one of the babies.

"Well, I have 2 year old so that could have something to do with it" I said.

"You're 16, right?"

"Yeah, look I know what you must be thinking. I'm too young to have a kid" I said.

"No, I was just thinking back to when my kid was born" said Jack.

"You have a kid? You don't look that old" I said.

"I'm 20. I was 17 when my son was born" said Jack, "what about you?"

"14. The mother didn't even bother to tell me about the baby until 2 weeks after she was born" I said. Normally I wouldn't tell a complete stranger stuff like that, but for some reason I was ok with telling him. He seemed to understand what it was like to be a kid with a kid.

"What's your sons name?"

"Jack. What about your's?"

"Davanee."

"That's a pretty name."

"Thanks but I didn't name her" I said.

I was about to add more to that statement I put I saw there was a parent waiting to drop off the kid. The mother was a bit hesitant about leaving her kid with us but after a while and a couple of minutes of persuading her, she finally left her kid with us. The kid seemed to do just fine when her mom was gone.

My first week at work seemed to be going pretty well. I didn't have to work at the movie theatre that Friday night but the club was having a big party and they needed me. At first, Anya wasn't happy about it. She complained about not seeing me all week but once I explained to her what was going on and that it wasn't my choice to work that night, she seemed to be ok with it.

When I was getting ready for work that night, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of party the club was having. At first I thought it was some big wedding or something because everybody seemed to be making a big deal out of it but boy, was I way off. It was a 16 year old girl's birthday party. She was definitely a soc. I arrived at work that night to find a white limo and a red carpet at the entrance. Just as I was about to go in, I saw Jack getting out of his car.

"This girl must be pretty important if they rolled out the red carpet for her" said Jack, walking up to the entrance.

"Either important or spoiled" I said.

"I think the second option is probably right. We better get inside and start setting up" said Jack. I followed him inside. When we stepped into the ballroom, my jaw dropped. The whole room was covered with pink and white. The chairs were pink. The tables were white. The roses on some of the tables where pink and on the others white. There was a huge happy sweet 16 sign on the stage.

"I guess we don't have to sent up anything" I said.

"I guess not" said Jack.

"Oh there you are" said Dave, coming up behind us, "we have a very big evening ahead of us tonight. Tonight you two will be serving the guest and the girl. I don't want to hear any complaints about it, got that?" asked Dave.

"Yes sir" said Jack and I at the same time.

"Very well then. The guest and the girl, uh Mary I believe that's her name, will be arriving shortly. The limo just left to pick up. I expect everything to be ready by the time they get here. The girl arrived about an hour later. Her escort had to cancel at the last minute so guess who got to replace him. The girl looked at me in disgust. I offered to help her out of the limo but all she said was "there is no way I'm walking into my party with you." Sure, it hurt but for some reason I understood. No soc girl wanted to be seen with a greaser like me. So I simply said "either you can take my hand and get over it or you can stay out here and miss out on all the fun. Which will it be?" The girl reluctantly grabbed my hand and we made our way towards the door. I must admit, the girl was very pretty. She had on a white dress that almost resembled a wedding gown. Her brown hair was done up in girls on the top of her head. She was always wearing a crown.

Once I escorted her inside the ballroom, she took of with a bunch of her friends without even so much as a thank you. I went back to the kitchen to help with the food. The party pressed on as we worked our fingers to the bones in the kitchen. Since I really wasn't that good with food, my job for the night was to give out drinks. The drinks were soda in champagne glasses. You would've thought they give us plastic glasses in case of an accident but no, these were made of real glass. I handed a glass to just about everyone who had an empty hand, and I tried to do it with a smile. I was about to head back to the kitchen when I noticed the princess didn't have anything to drink. So, being the nice person that I am, I started walking over to her to give her something. I was about to offer her something when I tripped. Soda and glass went flying everywhere, including on the girls white dress. The girl looked like she was about to strike me but her mother quickly pushed her off to the bathroom, while I laid on the ground soaked.

I didn't really know what it was like to have everybody laughing at you until that moment. I closed my eyes and pretended like I didn't hear it, but I knew I had to get up and clean up the glass and soda sometime. I opened my eyes to see Samantha helping me up. This was the same Samantha that helped me in the nursery on my first day. She had long red hair that was tied up in a ponytail, and dark brown eyes. She smiled at me and said "I'll help you clean up."

"No it's ok" I said as I started picking up the glass, "I got it." Samantha acted as if she didn't hear me and continued to pick up the glass while cleaned up the soda.

I carried the broken glass back to the kitchen and threw it away.

"You ok?" asked Jack as he was preparing one of the many treys.

"Yeah I'll be ok" I said, "how's the girl?"  
"Oh, you couldn't hear her screaming from the bathroom? 'Mama, my dress is ruined! He did that on purpose!" said Jack, imitating the girl.

"Oh well. She was asking for it anyways" I said, "listen, I should probably get home."

"Alright" said Jack, "see ya Monday."

I waved and said goodbye as I left the kitchen. I walked out the front, trying my best to avoid the bathrooms. It's not that I was afraid of the girl, I can handle a spoiled brat, it's jut that I really wanted to get home. Unfortunately, I ran into traffic on the way home but after all, it was a Friday night.

I was greeted by two hugs and a kiss when I got home.

"Well this is a surprise. What are you doing up so late?" I asked, picking Davanee up.

"She couldn't sleep" said Anya.

"Come on" I said, "let's get you back to bed."

"But I not sleepy" said Davanee, half a wake.

"Oh yes you are" I said, laying her down and covering her up.

"Daddy, sing to me" said Davanee.

"No, daddy's too tired to sing tonight" I said.

"Please?"

"I'll make a deal with you. How about tonight I put on your Mary Poppins record and I'll sing to you tomorrow night" I said.

"Otay."

I put the record on, turned out the lights, and left the door cracked.

"She just wanted to see you" said Anya.

"Yeah I figured that."

"So how was work?"

"It was interesting. Tonight we had a 16 year old girls birthday party. Boy was she a spoiled brat. I accidentally spilt soda on her dress and she freaked out. She claims that I did it on purpose" I said.

"Oh I'm sorry. That must have been embarrassing" said Anya.

"It was but I'll get over it" It'd be pretty stupid not to.


	27. Thanksgiving

"Where we going?" asked Davanee as I helped her get dressed. I had to take her with work to me that day. Nobody could watch her. Not even Two-Bit. He claimed that he had something important to do. I imagine that would consist of drifting (or in this case stumbling) from bar to bar downtown. Two-Bit was practically notorious for his drinking habits. If people weren't talking about Dallas or Soda, they were talking about him. I think he kind of like the local fame.

"You are coming with me to work today" I said.

"I work with you?" asked Davanee.

"No, you're gonna stay in the daycare while I work" I said.

"What's daycare?"

"It's this place where you get to play with all these boys and girls. And you get to play with lots of toys" I said.

"I make friends?" asked Davanee.

"Yeah, you'll make lots of new friends" I said. Even though she was just 2, I think Davanee was always up for making new friends. She got that from me. Even though I may seem shy, I like making friends. I was almost always the first to make friends wit the new kids at school. Unfortunately, once those friends discovered the soc, grease thing they choose sides and stuck to them. Those that hung out with the socs seem to forget about me, but I was ok with that. I understand how things work.

We arrived at the club about 20 before it opened. Davanee was a bit hesitant about going to the daycare. She was going to be with people she had never met before, and I think that made her nervous. It made me nervous too. Most of these employees were strangers to me too.

"Daddy, I stay with you" said Davanee when it came time to drop her off.

"No, baby, you can't stay with me. Besides, you'd be bored. Wouldn't you rather stay here and play?" I asked.

Davanee took a look around the room, almost as if she were scoping out the toys. She shook her head yes.

"Bye Daddy" said Davanee, waving.

"Bye sweetie. I'll see you in a little while" I said. I really didn't want to work that day. Half of me wanted to beg Dave to let me work in the nursery but I knew it was probably best I go work some where's else. So I worked at the pool. There really wasn't much to do since it was November. All I had to do was clean the deck and pool. I had never cleaned a pool before (mostly because I've never had one). It really wasn't as hard as it may look.

I was almost done with cleaning off the deck when I noticed the nursery window. I could see Davanee. She was playing Barbies with some of the other little girls. She looked over in my direction and smiled an waved. I couldn't help but smiled back. She smiled exactly like Soda, which is odd because nobody could smile like him. That grin was one of a kind.

I finished up the pool and the deck and headed to the grill, which was were all the golfers ate when they were finished with there game. I didn't really like working in the grill. The men that ate in there were rude to the staff most of the time, acting as if they were better than us. There was this one guy who called me white trash. I wanted nothing more than to jump him but Dave was watching so I had to be kind and courteous regardless. Fortunately, I haven't seen the guy since.

Once I was done working in the grill, I took a break. Dave usually gave us a break that lasted an hour, hour and a half (if he was in a good mood). Dave was in a good mood that day. Instead of going to lunch, I went to the nursery. It was snack time. They were having apple juice and graham crackers that day.

Samantha was working the nursery during her break.

"How's she doing?" I asked.

"She seems to be doing pretty well but she did get in trouble once" said Samantha.

"What happened?" I asked.

"She hit one of the other girls. I put her in time out for a couple of minutes, if that's ok with you" said Samantha.

"Oh trust me, that's not the first time she's been in time out" I said.

"Ok good. For a minute there I thought you were one of those parents who hated to punish there kids. You know, the ones who wanted to be a friend instead of a parent?" said Samantha.

"No, I'm not like that. I punish her, but not that much. As far as two year olds go, I got lucky with her. She's not that bad" I said. I was more than glad that Davanee never really went through that terrible two thing.

"I should get back to work" said Samantha.

"Ok, I should probably go too. I promised my wife I would go see her on my break" I said.

"Then you better go, you don't want to keep her waiting" said Samantha, going back to the kids. I practically ran towards the truck. I didn't have that much time left and I knew Anya would be mad if I didn't visit her. I made it to the station in record time. She was about to go to lunch when I walked in.

"I thought you weren't coming" said Anya.

"I promised you I'd be here. So, here I am" I said.

"How's working going?" she asked.

"Pretty good so far" I said.

"How's Davanee doing?"

"She got in trouble once but that's about it really" I said.

"Well, that's good to hear. I mean, good that you guys are having a good day but bad that she got in trouble" said Anya.

We talked for a little while longer, mostly about her day so far. She said she wasn't feeling good and she wanted to take the rest of the afternoon off. She left before her break was over. I went back to work. Davanee was asleep when I got back.

I got off work that day around 3. I had a couple of hours before I had to be at school. Davanee and I ended up going to the park on the way home. I was pushing Davanee on the swings when she asked me to teach her how to swing on her own.

"It's easy" I said, sitting on the swing next to her, "you just move your legs back and forth like this." She tried to copy me but it didn't really work.

"Not so fast" I said. Once she slowed down a little, she finally got it. This was just one of the many memories I have of that park. A lot of things have happened there over the past couple of years. Anya and I kissed for the first time. Davanee took her first step under the tree. I even proposed to Anya under that tree. I smiled as I thought about that. I asked her back in May and now it's November.

Davanee and I went home shortly after. We were going to stop by the house, but no one was home. Both Darry and Soda worked all day. I often wonder what the house was like without me around, but I guess I'll never know.

When we got home, I worked on my homework while Davanee played out in the living room. I felt bad about having to work on homework. I would much rather be spending time with Davanee then working on some equation. I really didn't like math all that much anyways. I was always more of an English person than a math person. Have you ever noticed that if you're good a math, you're usually not that good at English? Or if you're good at English, you're not so great at math? It's strange how that works out sometimes.

Anya came home about an hour before I had to go to school. Part of me wanted to skip school but I knew Anya would be mad if I did. Anya gave me a kiss before I left, like she always does.

School that night was long and uneventful. It almost always was.

A couple of weeks passed and it was time for thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was one of my favorite times of the year. Anya, Davanee, and I arrived at the house before anyone else. We had made most of the food the night before, but there were still some minor things to be done. Davanee watched the parade while I set the table. Normally she would've helped me but she loved watching the thanksgiving day parade. She said she liked seeing Santa at the end. That was my favorite part when I was little.

By the time everything was ready, everybody had arrived. We had one full house that thanksgiving. We had Darry, Soda, Two-Bit, Dallas, Steve, Johnny, Bo, Maddie, Ally, Dillon, Kara, Anya, Davanee, and I. The kids sat around the coffee table in the living room while the rest of us sat at the kitchen table. I sort of missed not being around the gang all the time. It just didn't feel right.

We had to wrap dinner up early that night. All of the kids looked like they were about to fall asleep, especially Davanee. She was half asleep when I carried her out to the car. We said our goodbyes to the gang and left. I was about to tuck Davanee in when she asked me "Daddy, where grandma and grandpa?"

"They're in New York, you know that" I said.

"No. Where your mommy and daddy?" she asked.

"They died before you were born" I said.

"How?"

"They were in a bad car accident" I said.

"You miss 'em?" asked Davanee.

"Yeah. I do" I said. I could feel the tears coming. I hadn't talked about my parents in a long time. It's funny because, when they died we talked about them all the time but now it's almost as if we had forgotten about them. I know it may sound a little crazy, but I could feel them all the time, like they were always watching me. I often wonder what they thought about Davanee and Anya. I'm sure they would've loved both of them, especially Davanee. Davanee hardly ever asked about mom and dad. At 2 years old, I don't think it really occurred to her that she was missing a couple of things. I just glad she hasn't asked about her mom yet. I don't really know what to say if she does. But I guess someday curiosity will get the best of her and she'll ask. I was hoping that day would be someday in the far off future.

I kissed Davanee goodnight and turned out the lights.


	28. Merry Christmas

We bought a Christmas tree the week after Thanksgiving. We couldn't buy a big one that year. So we ended up getting a smaller one. Darry gave us a bunch of old ornaments and lights so we wouldn't have to buy them. I always liked decorating the tree. Sure this tree wasn't exactly a masterpiece, but it was ours. We had a couple of lights out, and most of the ornaments were cracked but it still looked nice. Anya made it look nice. As soon as the tree was up, Davanee and I went Christmas shopping. Anya had to work that night and I didn't have to go to school. So I thought I would take advantage of the opportunity. Normally I would've gone to some department store but I knew Anya couldn't fit into anything in there. I'm not trying to be mean or anything but it's the truth. I spent about an hour looking around the mall until I finally found the perfect store. Unfortunately, it was a maternity store. I really didn't want to go in there because a) I hate shopping, b) I really didn't know what to get her and c) I didn't want to be the only guy in there.

I was about to pass up the store when I saw Samantha in there. I was a bit curious as to why she would be shopping in a maternity store since she wasn't pregnant.

"Hey Pony" said Samantha, waving.

"Hey" I said.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Just doing a little Christmas shopping" I said.

"For Anya?" she asked.

"Yeah. I don't really know what to get her" I said.

"You want me to help?"

"Could you? I'm kinda lost" I said.

"Sure. What size does she wear?" asked Samantha.

"I don't know. It's kinda hard to tell nowadays" I said.

"Then why don't you get something for the babies? Like clothes or something" suggested Samantha.

"That's a good idea" I said. Samantha pointed me in the direction of the baby clothes.

"Is this your second job or something?" I asked.

"No but when you have as many siblings as I do, you get used to shopping for maternity stuff" she said.

"How many siblings do you have?"

"11. I'm the oldest followed by Ruthie, Annie, Katie, Baby, Mikey, Jonah, Jackson, Jess, Hannah, Elizabeth, and Lilly" she said.

"Wow. That's a lot. I'm busy with just one kid" I said, "how old are they?"

"Well, Ruthie is 14. Annie is 12. Katie and Baby are 10. Mikey is 8. Jonah and Jackson are 7. Jess is 5. Hannah and Elizabeth are 2 and Lilly is 5 months" she said, "What about you?"

"I have two older brothers. There's Darry who's 22 and Soda who's 18" I said.

"How about this one?" asked Samantha, holding up a pink dress. It looked like something Davanee would wear if she were still a baby.

"I don't know. We don't know what we're having yet" I said.

"Well, you can buy some girls stuff and some boys stuff" suggested Samantha. We proceeded to get a few more outfits and a couple of other things. Most of the stuff was girly. Anya was absolutely certain that both of them were girls, but we got some boys stuff just in case. I thanked Samantha for helping me and went home. Davanee looked like she was ready to fall asleep. I normally didn't keep her out late but since no one could watch her, I had no choice. Besides, since I started working at the club, I really haven't been able to spend that much time with her.

When we got home, I hid the presents in Davanee closet. Anya never went in there so I thought it was a good hiding place. I tucked Davanee and kissed her goodnight like I always do. Instead of singing to her that night, I put on her Marry Poppins soundtrack. I really don't see how she can sleep with music on. I have to have it absolutely quite whenever I'm sleeping. I stood in the doorway and watcher her fall asleep. I found it very hard to believe that she was going to be 3 in just a few short months. It seemed like just last week I found her on our doorstep. I cracked the door, sat at the kitchen table, and waited for Anya to come home. I really didn't like the thought of her working this late. Come to think of it, I didn't like the thought of her working at all.

It seemed like hours till she came home. She looked exhausted and her eyes were red. She had been crying.

"Baby, what's wrong?" I asked, standing up.

"I stopped by the hospital after work tonight" she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Remember that girl Sarah from school? The one who's baby was born premature?" she asked.

"Yeah I remember" I said.

"The baby died this morning. He was so little. The poor father never even got to see him. It's not fair" said Anya, "it's not fair that the baby had to die so young. It's not fair the father never got to see him."

"That's just how it goes sometimes" I said.

"You think that's how it's gonna be for us?" asked Anya.

"Of course not" I said like I was absolutely sure it wasn't going to happen. Deep down, I was just as scared as Anya but I didn't show it like she does.

"I don't feel good" she said, " I should probably go to bed." I was a bit worried about Anya. Lately, she's been feeling really bad. I wanted her to go to the doctors but she said she's about had it with doctors. I told her she sounded crazy when she says that but she doesn't care.

I went to bed with her. I had had a long day and I was anxious to get it over with. A couple of weeks passed and before we knew it, it was Christmas eve. We all went over to the house that night. It was like a replay of thanksgiving except there was a tree and the house smelt like pine. That Christmas eve was the same as last years. We all had dinner around the kitchen table and afterwards we opened some presents, but not all of them. Mom always let us open at least 1 present on Christmas eve. They were normally pajamas.

After that we went home. Davanee was anxious to get home and go to bed so she could open her presents the next morning. I on the other hand still had some wrapping to do so I ended up staying up a little later then usual. I wrapped every present except one. That one was too big to wrap so I hid it in my closet. It was one of Davanee's presents so it didn't matter if Anya saw it. I went to bed around 2 that night, but I was awoken at 5 by someone tugging on my arm.

"Daddy wake up" whispered Davanee, "it's Christmas."

I opened my eyes to see Davanee standing by my bed, dressed in the Christmas pajamas that Anya had bought her a couple of weeks earlier.

"Merry Christmas, Daddy" she said, smiling.

"Merry Christmas, baby" I said, getting up. I looked over to the other side of the bed to see that Anya was already up.

"Where's Anya?" I asked.

"She make breakfast. Come on" said Davanee, tugging at my arm. I followed Davanee out to the kitchen. I was greeted by the smell of cinnamon buns. Normally we just had eggs for breakfast but Christmas was special. We always had cinnamon buns on Christmas morning.

"Good morning. Merry Christmas, baby" said Anya as I walked into the kitchen.

"Merry Christmas" I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

We started opening presents once we were done with breakfast. Davanee got the most stuff. It was mostly toys. She really didn't need a lot of clothes. Anya got a lot of stuff too. It was mostly stuff for the babies but she seemed to like them. She loved the stuff I picked out. Once all the presents had been opened, I got Davanee's present from the closet.

"Close your eyes" I said. Davanee sat on the couch and closed her eyes while I got the trike out of the closet.

"Ok, open" I said. She opened her eyes and squealed when she saw the trike. It was her favorite color, pink. It had white and pink sparkly streamers on the handles with a white seat and tires. Davanee hoped on once she was done inspecting it.

"I ride now?" she asked.

"No, not now. We'll take it to Uncle Darry's and Uncle Soda's and you can ride it there" I said.

"Ok."

Once we were sure that absolutely everything had been opened, we had to start getting ready. We were going to spend the rest of the day at the house. Davanee was the first one to be ready. I think that was because she wanted to ride her trike. We loaded the trike into the back of the truck and made our way to the house. Everybody was already there. Davanee wanted to ride her trike first but I made her come inside for a little while.

"Uncle Darry, guess what" said Davanee as she came in.

"What?"

"I gots a trike" said Davanee.

"Wow. I bet it's really pretty" said Darry.

"It is. It pink" said Davanee. She then proceeded to tell everyone about her new trike, she was that excited about it. I remember when my parents got me a trike. Mine was red with white handles. I would ride that thing from dusk till dawn. Dad would have to pry me off of it. He would even bribe me to come inside. Of course, I fell for the bribe every time.

We opened a lot of presents at the house. I just got a bunch of books and clothes and stuff but that's ok. That's all I really wanted anyways. Anya got a bunch of clothes and clothes for the babies. Davanee on the other hand got a rocking horse. She had been asking for one lately but I didn't have the money to get both the trike and the horse. So Soda and Darry got the rocking horse. She loved it. She said that one day she wants to ride a real horse. Horses where her favorite animal. She was constantly drawing pictures and was shocked to hear that Soda had a horse (which technically wasn't his).

Once we were done with opening the presents, I let Davanee go outside and tryout her trike. She was a natural. It was hard to get her back inside. It was starting to get cold out and I didn't want her getting sick. That's the last thing we needed was to have a sick kid. After about 2 or 3 hours worth of riding, she finally came inside and played with her other toys. Davanee played in the living room while I helped with dinner. I was just about to set the table when Davanee came in.

"Why aren't you playing with all your new toys?" I asked.

"I play with them already" she said.

"Why don't you go play with Bo? She's lookin' kinda lonely in the play pin all by herself" I said. We set up Davanee's old play pin for Bo.

Davanee sighed and said "ok." She walked over and sat in front of the play pin. She started showing Bo her new Barbie doll but the baby started crying.

"Uncle Dallas, Bo crying" said Davanee.

Dallas picked Bo up and tried to calm her down but it didn't work.

"Try dis" said Davanee, handing Dallas Bo's pacifier. Sure enough, it worked. We stayed at the house until midnight or so. Davanee was already asleep by the time we left. The excitement of the day's activities had worn her out. Soda carried Davanee out to the car while I got her rocking horse and trike. She had spent most of the day riding her trike, she liked it that much. And when she wasn't outside riding her trike, she was inside rocking on her rocking hoarse.

About a week later we were back over at the house for new years eve. We always watched the ball drop from Times Square every year. We launched fireworks off from the driveway. It was kinda funny to see a drunk Two-Bit try to light a firework. Instead of lighting the fuse, he "accidentally" set the whole firework on fire. I don't know why we trusted Two-Bit with fire.

"Let me do it" I said, approaching Two-Bit. I snatched the lighter out of his hand before he could protest.

"Davanee, pick one out" I said. It took her a little while before she finally found one she liked. I lit it and walked away quickly.

We stood back and watched the rest of the fireworks. Davanee asked me if she could light one but of course I said no. You'd have to be crazy to let your 2 year old play with fire. We didn't get home that night until 2 in the morning. I felt bad about keeping Davanee out that late but she fell asleep right after midnight so I didn't feel too bad.

Weeks passed before we saw the gang again. I got caught up with work and school. That's what happens when you return from Christmas break. The club got even more busy now that spring was on it's way. We opened the indoor pool right after Christmas. The indoor pool was warmer than the outdoor pool. The daycare started taking the kids out to play on the golf coarse whenever there weren't a whole lot of golfers. Davanee would come home with grass stains all over her clothes from playing in the grass and she always came home with golf balls in her pockets.

I am sorry to say guys that the next chapter will be the last chapter and it's really long. I hope you like this chapter! Don't forget to review!


	29. Don't take the girl

I was about to go to work one day when I noticed Anya wasn't feeling good. I offered to stay home with her but she forced me to go. She said she'd be fine and she'd call me if she needed anything. I was expecting her to call me but she never did. At that time, I didn't think much of her being sick. I thought it was just a bad cold and she'd get over it. I was wrong.

I came home that night to find Anya sweating, shivering, and throwing up.

"I'm taking you to the doctors" I said.

"No, I'll be ok. It's just a cold" said Anya.

"Anya, this isn't a cold. Please let me take you to the doctors" I pleaded.

"Alright but let's go tomorrow. I'm too tired to go today" she said. I called the doctor and made an appointment for her the next day. Dr. Irene said we'd have to meet her at her office at the hospital downtown. Once I was done talking to her, I called Dave. I explained to him what was going on and he gave me the whole day off. I thanked him profusely and went to bed.

THE NEXT DAY AT THE HOSPITAL

The waiting room was freezing and empty. Everybody was probably at work or school. Anya looked worse than the day before. She had dark circles under her eyes and her hair was wet from sweating so much. She really didn't want to be there but she had no choice.

"Anya" called a nurse. We got up and followed her to Dr. Irene's office. It looked just like the office at the other building, except this one was blue. Dr. Irene ran some blood test on Anya and said that we'd get the test results in just a couple of minutes. I guess that was the good part about having a doctors office at the hospital, you get test results faster. We waited in Dr. Irene's office for what seemed like hours. Got even worse before the test results came back.

Dr. Irene walked in with a grave look on her face. Something wasn't right.

"We have the test results" said Dr. Irene, holding up a folder.

"Is it bad?" asked Anya, her voice hoarse. Dr. Irene nodded her head yes.

"It's bacterial meningitis" began Dr. Irene, "it's a disease that spreads in the blood and spinal fluids. We must do a lumbar puncture before we start you on the antibiotics. But, we must get the babies out before they become infected. You're just passed the 24 week mark so they should be ok. I'm going to go ahead and prepare a room for you. A nurse will come and get you when the room is ready" said Dr. Irene as she left. Tears started flowing down Anya's face.

"Pony what if something happens?" asked Anya as she cried on my shoulder.

"Nothing's going to happen. You and the babies are going to be fine" I said.

"But we're not ready yet. We haven't even set up the nursery, let alone pick out names" said Anya, crying harder. I wrapped my arms around her and held her on the exam table. That was all I really could do.

"Mercy" said Anya.

"What?"

"I like that name. It's a pretty name" said Anya.

"I love that name" I said.

"Mercy Jay" said Anya, "I like that." I was about to say something else but the nurse came in a told us the room was ready. The nurse wheeled Anya down the hall in a wheelchair while I walked next to her. The room was nice. It had a big window and the walls were painted baby blue. The nurse got Anya hooked up to the monitors

"Go call the gang. Tell them what's going on" said Anya.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive" said Anya.

"I'll be back in a couple of minutes" I said. I was about to walk out the door when the nurse grabbed me by the arm and said "don't go too far." I shook lose of her grip and found the nearest phone. The first person I called was Soda. The phone rang and rang and rang until finally someone picked up. It was Soda.

"Hello" said Soda.

"Soda" was all I could say. I was trying to fight back the tears and talking wasn't helping.

"Pony? What's wrong?" he asked.

"Anya's sick. You gotta come to the hospital" I said.

"What's wrong?"

"She's really sick. They gotta get the babies out. Please come" I begged.

"Don't worry, I'm on my way. Steve and Ally are coming too" said Soda.

"Bring Davanee with you" I said.

"Alright. I'll see you there" said Soda. I then proceeded to call everyone else. I tried as hard as I could to keep the tears from coming but I broke down when I was talking to Darry. He said he was on his way and not to worry. Everything was going to be ok. We were all going to be fine. I was scared. I was only 16. I was still a kid. I shouldn't be here. I should be hanging out with the gang without a care in the world. Instead, I was in the hospital crying over the phone. I didn't want to loose Anya or the babies.

I hung up the phone and walked back to the room. They were preparing Anya for delivery. Dr. Irene explained the whole process to me. They were going to put Anya to sleep and would perform a C-section. It didn't sound too pleasant to me but there was no other option.

"This is it" said Anya.

"It'll be ok. Everything will be ok" I said. I kept telling myself this, but I didn't believe it.

"I love you" said Anya.

"I love you too" I said, giving her a kiss before they wheeled her out of the room. I walked with her down the hall to the delivery room. They made me wait outside. That made me mad because I wanted to be in there with her. There was no way she could go through something this big by herself. She needed someone in there with her.

I sat on a bench across the hall, leaned against the wall, and closed my eyes. I wanted to cry so badly but people were watching. I didn't feel comfortable crying in public. It just didn't seem right to me.

I opened my eyes to find Soda standing over me, holding Davanee.

"Where is she?" asked Soda.

"She's in the delivery room. They said it could take a while" I said. Soda sat down next to me on the bench. Davanee crawled into my lap and put her head on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry" said Soda.

"It's ok. It's not your fault she's sick. It just happened" I said. I tried to focus on something else. School, work, anything but it didn't work. My thoughts always came back to Anya and the babies. What would I do if something happened to all of them? I don't know what I would do. I asked myself the same question when my parents died. I cried myself to sleep the night they died. I couldn't picture the world without them. I was just a kid when they died. I needed them. I still need them. They'd know what to do.

Within a couple of minutes, the whole gang was in the hallway. They made us move to the waiting room because we were crowding the hallway. I stayed behind. I handed Davanee over to Darry and paced the hall. I must have paced the hall a thousand times, I was that nervous. I was about to go join the gang in the waiting room when I heard the most beautiful noise in the whole world. It was the sound of a baby crying. I waited a couple of minutes to hear another one, but it didn't come. I was about to barge in there to see what happened when Dr. Irene came out.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Baby A is fine. She weighs 7 pounds, 10 ounces. She has all ten fingers and ten toes. Baby B needs to be on a respirator for a little while. Her lungs haven't fully developed yet. Unfortunately, she's only 5 pounds, 6 ounces" said the doctor.

"They're both girls?" I asked.

"Two beautiful girls" said Dr. Irene.

"And what about Anya?" I asked.

Another grave look crept across Dr. Irene's face. "I'm sorry. She was just too sick. We couldn't treat the meningitis in time." I couldn't hold the tears back any longer. I broke down in the hallway. Normally I wouldn't cry in front of people but I couldn't help it. Anya was dead. My wife was gone. She was too young to die. She was just 16. I felt like I was going to be sick. My heart dropped down into my stomach. I had never really known what a broken heart felt like, but as I thought about Anya I could feel it break. She had only been gone for a short time and I already missed her. I wanted her back here with me. There was no way I could raise 3 girls alone. I needed help.

I walked down the hall in a daze. It took me a little while to find the waiting room. I wiped my tears away and told the gang what the doctor told me. Davanee was the first one to hug me. She had no idea what was going on but she knew I needed a hug at that moment. I picked her up and didn't want to let her go for fear that I might loose her too. I felt my knees go weak so I had to sit down. Everything was spinning and blurry (but the blurriness was from the tears). I hugged Davanee closely and closed my eyes. 'This isn't happening' I thought to myself. I'll go home and I'll see Anya going through the book of baby names or I'll go to the DX and she'll be sitting behind the counter, waiting for a customer. Her eyes will light up when I walk. We'll talk about how our days are going and everything will be perfect. I kept trying to tell myself this but it didn't work. Anya was dead no matter what I thought.

The gang cleared out of the waiting room after awhile. They all wanted to stay longer but some of them had to get back to work. Darry, Soda, and Davanee stayed behind. I just sat there in the waiting room. Part of me wanted to get up and walk to the nursery but the other part didn't.

"Pony, you have to see them" said Soda.

"I don't want to" I said through clenched teeth.

"They're your kids, you have to" said Darry.

I sighed and asked "will you guys come with me?"

"Of course we will" said Soda. We had to ask a couple of people before we found the nursery. We looked through the window and checked every name tag. I was about to move on the next window when I saw the tag out of the corner of my eye. It read "Curtis. Girl. January 15th, 1970. Parents: Ponyboy and Anya Curtis."

"There she is" I said.

"Where?" asked Soda and Darry at the same time.

"In the back" I said, pointing to her basinet. She was so small but she made my heart melt. Despite the pain I was in, I couldn't help but smile at her. She was beautiful.

"What her name?" asked Davanee.

"Scotty. Scotty Rose Curtis. That's her name" I said.

"That's a pretty name" said Soda. Just then, Dr. Irene came out of the nursery.

"Where's the other baby?" I asked.

"She's in the newborn intensive care unit. Would you like to see her?"

I nodded yes. Darry, Soda, and Davanee had to stay out in the hall. Only the parents were aloud back there. Dr. Irene lead me through a large room filled with sick babies. Some of them were so small, they looked smaller than Scotty. Dr. Irene lead me to a basinet in the back of the room. The baby was hooked up to all sorts of machines that would help her breathe better.

"I'm sorry but you can't hold her just yet" said Dr. Irene. I pulled up a chair next to the baby and sat down.

"What's her name?" asked Dr. Irene.

"Mercy. Mercy Jay Curtis" I said.

"That's a beautiful name."

"Her mother picked it out" I said, gazing at Mercy. She was so small, it was a miracle she was alive at all. Her little fist fit almost perfectly in the palm of my hand. I wish her mother could see her. I wish Anya could see both of them. Even though Mercy was just a baby, she looked so much like her mom already. I could feel the tears coming back. This time I wasn't really sure if I was happy or sad. I was more than happy to see my babies but I was sad that Anya wasn't there with me. She had waited for months for this moment and for her it never came.

"Would you like to hold the other baby?" asked the doctor.

"Scotty" I said, "her name is Scotty Rose Curtis."

"I love that name" said the doctor, leading me to another part of the nursery.

"I love it too" I said. The doctor made me sit in a rocking chair while she got the basinet. She pushed the basinet in from the other room. Scotty looked even more beautiful up close. Dr. Irene took her out and placed her in my arms. She was so small, I thought I was going to hurt her. I sat there and rocked Scotty for what seemed like hours, when in reality it was just a couple of minutes.

"You can take her out in the hall so your brothers and Davanee can see her" said Dr. Irene. Without saying a word, I got up and walked out to the hall with Scotty in my arms. Darry, Soda, and Davanee were still looking at the babies when I came out.

"Look" said Davanee, pointing to me and the baby. They had me surrounded within minutes.

"She's so pretty" said Darry.

"Where's the other baby?" asked Soda.

"She has to be on a respirator for a little while. Her name is Mercy. Mercy Jay Curtis" I said.

"That's a pretty name" said Davanee, "I wanna see."

Darry lifted her up so she could see the baby.

"She my sister?" asked Davanee.

"Yep. She's your baby sister. You're a big sister now" I said. Davanee smiled at that. I knew it would be hard for her to adjust to the new babies, but I knew she could do it. Darry, Soda, and Davanee went home after a couple of hours. Davanee was going to stay with Darry and Soda for a little while. I stayed at the hospital as long as they would let me. Eventually, I had to go home. I said goodnight to both of the girls before I left. Instead of going to the apartment, I went to the house. There was no way I could stay in that apartment alone. I couldn't do it yet.

I walked in and laid down on the couch. I was too tired to get a blanket. I couldn't help but cry. I was tired. I wanted Anya. I wanted the babies. I wanted my parents. I cried myself to sleep that night. I had nightmares all that night. I couldn't stop thinking about Anya. I had a dream that we were sitting at the kitchen table and we talked endlessly for hours, about everything and nothing at the same time. It might not make any sense to you but it made perfect sense to me.

I awoke the next morning to the smell of eggs. I stumbled into the kitchen to see Darry cooking breakfast.

"I didn't expect to see you here this morning" said Darry.

"I can't go home" I said, "would you mind if I stayed with you guys for a little while? Just until the babies come home" I said.

"You know you're welcome to stay here as long as you want" said Darry.

"Thanks, Dar."

"Anytime" said Darry.

"I think I'm gonna go to the hospital today" I said.

"Ok. Two-Bit can probably watch Davanee for you if you want him to" said Darry, "he should be over here in a little while." A little while came pretty fast. Two-Bit came in, slamming the door behind him.

"I smell something cooking" said Two-Bit, walking into the kitchen, "hey Pony."

"Hey Two-Bit."

"How ya doin'?"

"Fine" I said.

"That's good. That's good" was all Two-bit could say. The rest of the morning went as it normally would, except we didn't have the TV and the radio turned all the way up. It was sort of quite. Steve, Soda, and Darry headed off to work. Two-bit agreed to watch Davanee while I went to the hospital. I visited the hospital everyday until both of them could come home. It turns out Mercy healed faster than what the nurses and doctors expected. Darry, Soda, and Davanee came to the hospital with me to pick them up. I was scared about taking them home. It was just the four of us now. I was taking them home to the apartment. That was my first night in the apartment after Anya died. Pieces of her still remained at the apartment. Her perfume bottle was sitting on the bathroom sink. Her clothes were still in the closet. It was almost as if she had never left. I half expected her to be in the room that was suppose to be the nursery, but she wasn't.

"We have a surprise for you" said Soda as we climbed the stairs to the apartment. I was carrying Scotty while Soda was carrying Mercy. Davanee and Darry followed close behind.

"Go look in the nursery" said Soda. I opened the door to the nursery to see that it had been painted and decorated. Even the cribs were put together.

"You guys did this?" I asked, looking around.

"Yeah. It was the least we could do. We used a lot of Davanee's old stuff" said Darry. I recognized one of the cribs, the changing table, and the rocking chair from Davanee's nursery.

"Thanks guys" I said, taking Scotty out of the baby carrier.

"We gotta get back to work" said Soda, handing Mercy over to me.

"You think you'll be ok?" asked Darry.

"Yeah, we'll be ok" I said. And this time, I believed it.


End file.
